AFL-CIO may reduce support to Democrats

AFL-CIO may reduce support to Democrats

WASHINGTON (AP) - Prominent labor leaders, frustrated that Democrats in Washington aren’t aggressively pursuing the union agenda, are threatening to limit their campaign support for Democrats, an act that would hamper the party’s bid to regain control of the House next year and keep a majority in the Senate.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka’s threat of a pullback Friday was the latest warning to a party that has long relied on labor’s cash and grass-roots support. If it makes good on its threat, labor probably would spend more time and money combating union-busting efforts by state officials.

“We will change the way we spend, the way we do things and the way we function that creates power for workers,” Trumka said.

In a speech at the National Press Club, Trumka called for “an independent labor movement” and said unions were not responsible for building the power of any political party, but for improving the lives of working families. He promised that unions would spend the summer holding leaders in Congress and the states accountable.

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AFL-CIO may reduce support to Democrats

OK, here’s the only thing I can figure out on this, the Union crooks aren’t getting their monies worth from the political crooks and the Union crooks need to find a better class of political crooks to team up with.

Does that sound about right?

If labor makes itself truly independent of the Democratic Party, it would mark a major shift in a long-standing political relationship.

“It doesn’t matter if candidates and parties are controlling the wrecking ball or simply standing aside to let it happen,” Trumka said. “The outcome is the same either way. If leaders aren’t blocking the wrecking ball and advancing working families’ interests, then working people will not support them.”

I seem to remember Jimmy Hoffa standing up in front of the Teamsters and carrying on all of his crap about how he wasn’t doing it for himself, he was doing it for the working man.

Of course Hoffa was, all the while, stuffing HIS pockets and making *back room deals* with the mob, but hey, it was all being done for the working man.

The AFL-CIO’s executive council is considering a plan that could spend less on congressional races and more on fighting state battles like those in Wisconsin and Ohio, where lawmakers want to weaken collective bargaining rights and reduce union clout.

Let’s face it, the Dems on the federal level have been feeding from the Union trough for so long, it’s time to fatten up the Dems at the state level. You can’t have Union corruption as it was truly meant to be if you don’t spread it around a bit, the state and local guys need to dip their quill in the ink too.

But Trumka made clear the federation had no plan to follow the lead of the nation’s largest firefighters union, which announced last month that it would halt all political donations to members of Congress because they are not fighting hard enough for union rights. The move has won praise in many corners of the labor movement, where union activists have openly grumbled about House and Senate Democrats being too quiet while unions are getting pummeled in dozens of states.

I am guessing that would be the IAFF? The International Association of Fire Fighters maybe?

I have absolutely nothing against Fire Fighters, I believe they are heroes of the 1st order, I also have no idea WHY the IAFF would affiliate itself with the AFL-CIO, and I still don’t understand WHY a hard working Fire Fighter would give his/her money to an organization that is a part of the AFL-CIO.

Texas is a *right to work* state, no one can force you to become a member of ANY union.

Personally, I feel that ALL states should be right to work states. Why should working people be forced to support the likes of the SEIU, Teamsters, IBEW, CWA and any number of unions? All in the name of having a good job?

The money that union members pay in dues offsets the real money that the worker makes, all the while causing the employer to have to spend more to operate, and thus charge the public more for his goods or services, all because some workers want to be known as Union members. The truth of the matter is, WE pay for the Unions, with every penny we spend on union made products.

Who is making the money, really making the money? Do you think Barack Obama’s buddy Richard Trumka is doing this from the goodness of his heart? Do you think that suit he’s wearing came off a rack at The Mens Warehouse?

“We’ve spent money where we have friends and we will continue to do that,” he said.

Money buys you a lot of *friends*, but the kind of friends that can be bought aren’t friends, they are bought and paid for *yes men*.

The Union goons love *yes men*, they love to spend union members money on corrupt public officials, and call them *friends* in the process. It’s all a happy go lucky world too, right up until the time that the Union goons want *special favors* that their *friends* are a bit hesitant to provide. That hesitation is mostly because said *favors* are unethical, illegal, or both, and could result in Mr. Public Official losing his office, career, home, family, freedom and everything else in life, and his sudden tinge of conscience makes it glaringly apparent that *favors* are going to be very costly to his career and way of life.

Then the aforementioned Union goons make Mr. Public Official aware that if he doesn’t provide that *favor*, he, Mr. Public Official, will be thrown to the wolves as a corrupt public official that took bribes, and in that case he is still going to lose his office, career, home, family, freedom and everything else in life.

That’s how the Unions play.

Unions have been disappointed that Congress has not passed a more ambitious stimulus plan to create jobs, that health care reform didn’t go far enough and that Democrats - when they held a majority in Congress - couldn’t muster enough votes to pass a bill that would make it easier to organize unions.

The AFL-CIO spent more than $50 million to support Democrats in last year’s midterm elections, much of it in critical get-out-the vote efforts in dozens of key races. But a growing number of union leaders remain frustrated at what their money has bought. Some activists want to reallocate resources permanently so that more is spent bolstering grass roots support in the states.

Read that line closely, read it, think about it and absorb it, “But a growing number of union leaders remain frustrated at what their money has bought.”

That’s sums it all up in a neat and tidy package. The Unions are only trying to BUY influence, and they have millions of dollars to get it done. Money made from the sweat of the working man, all the while, the union organizer is going to tell you that Unions are a friend of the working man.

One other thing, I intentionally linked the Unions and Dems together as crooks, birds of a feather, and they DO flock together.