Support for Sanders Grows in Unions
Bernie Sanders’ campaign for president is drawing impressive crowds to rallies across the country—from 7,500 in Burlington, Vermont, to 300 in Birmingham, Alabama.
And it’s no wonder that many union members are part of this groundswell of support, or that he’s already won endorsements from a number of locals and support resolutions from the Vermont and South Carolina AFL-CIOs.
“It would be hard to find many other elected leaders in state or national office who have supported the issues of working families, working people, the working poor, and workplace justice any more than Senator Sanders,” said nurse Mari Cordes, a member of Vermont’s Teachers (AFT) local.
Sanders’ platform includes a $15-an-hour minimum wage, guaranteed vacations and sick leave, lifting the payroll tax cap on Social Security, and single-payer health care. He’s a vocal opponent of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the latest corporate-friendly trade deal. He rails against income inequality and how the “billionaire class” dominates politics.
“It’s clear that Bernie, like Elizabeth Warren, has been out there speaking about the issues that are boiling up in union halls across the country,” said Larry Hanley, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union.
While he and the ATU have backed Hillary Clinton for years, Hanley said, “Hillary thus far has not offered us the path that Bernie has.”
So endorsements pose a strategic dilemma. “We don’t want to bruise Hillary so much in the process that she can’t win. We don’t want to lead our members down a dark alley,” he said.
“But at what point do we get our share? At what point do workers get what we had 30 years ago? We don’t just get that by saluting the status quo.”
An invitation-only event in D.C. on July 13, hosted by leaders of the Postal Workers (APWU) and former Communications Workers (CWA) President Larry Cohen, drew presidents or their designees from 22 international unions to hear the candidate speak.
A similar number showed up for a Clinton event the next night at the home of her campaign manager, John Podesta.
“Bernie Sanders has been a champion of postal workers and consumers, and raising the question of $15 for all as a minimum wage,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein. “On that basis our union will give him serious consideration.”
ENDORSEMENTS PUSH
Organizers of Labor for Bernie—a grassroots effort to build labor support for the Sanders campaign—say one goal is to discourage the AFL-CIO from making an early Clinton endorsement.
They argue labor has little to gain from an early endorsement. And they want more time for pro-Sanders activism to raise union members’ expectations on the issues being highlighted in his campaign.
They want 5,000 signatures on their Labor for Bernie statement before the AFL-CIO executive council meets July 29-30. As of July 15 they had 3,500.
Sanders, Clinton, Maryland ex-Gov. Martin O’Malley, and Arkansas ex-Gov. Mike Huckabee are all expected to attend the meeting, where the council could endorse a candidate or decide to hold off. Hanley said the ATU opposes an early endorsement.
Presidential endorsements are the national AFL-CIO’s prerogative, as President Richard Trumka reminded state and local bodies in a recent memo after the Vermont and South Carolina federations passed resolutions backing Sanders.
AFL-CIO bylaws stipulate that these bodies may not “introduce, consider, debate, or pass resolutions or statements that indicate a preference for one candidate over another.” The rule also applies to personal statements by local and state officers.
But Labor for Bernie organizers hope that state and local fed bodies and officers are willing to flout the rules.
So far Sanders has the backing of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 2222 in Massachusetts, IBEW Local 159 in Madison, Wisconsin, the Vermont National Education Association (NEA), and Lithographers Local One-L (a Teamsters’ affiliate), among others.
“We were really happy he decided to run, because it gave us an alternative,” said Myles Calvey, Local 2222’s business manager. “Elected Democratic officials have it in their minds that labor has no place to go.”
Calvey contrasts Sanders with Democrat John Kerry. Just a few weeks after CWA and IBEW settled a hard-fought contract with Verizon in 2012, he said, Kerry was sharing seats in the press box at a Patriots game with CEO Lowell McAdam.
The Electrical Workers (UE) executive board has also issued a statement supporting Sanders, urging “members and locals to take a serious look at Bernie Sanders’s campaign and to consider their active participation in it.”
AFT BACKS CLINTON
Clinton picked up a big endorsement July 11, when the executive council of the 1.6 million-member Teachers (AFT) became
- See more at: http://labornotes.org/2015/07/support-sanders-grows-unions#sthash.yFaJtn3L.dpuf
