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John Nichols: AFL-CIO gears up to push for Obama

John Nichols  —  7/01/2008 5:20 am

The nation's largest union federation, the AFL-CIO, was going to endorse Barack Obama for president.

Once the race for the Democratic nomination was settled, that was not up for debate. Not since Richard Nixon in 1972 has a Republican made a serious effort to appeal for labor neutrality in a presidential race -- let alone take steps that might justify an endorsement of a party that long ago distanced itself from Abraham Lincoln's view: "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

And Obama can lay a stronger claim to labor's endorsement than more than a few of the Democrats who have carried labor's mantle over the years.

The Illinois senator, who got his start working closely with the United Steelworkers union as a community organizer in Chicago, has throughout his political career voted in relatively close alignment with the labor movement. He was an AFL-CIO ally in the Illinois state Senate and, since his arrival in Washington in 2005, he's earned a 98 percent pro-union rating.

(Obama's one real area of weakness -- and it is a serious one -- has always been in the area of trade policy, where the senator has never seemed to fully recognize the extent to which our current free-trade regime favors the interests of multinational corporations while harming the interests of workers, the environment and communities in the U.S. and abroad.)

Republican John McCain, on the other hand, makes George Bush and Dick Cheney look like Joe Hill and Mother Jones. Militantly anti-labor not just since his recent turning to the hard right but throughout a congressional career that dates back to the early 1980s, McCain votes with labor only about 16 percent of the time. And on trade issues, he is not just worse than Obama, he's worse than Bush or Bill Clinton.

Obama had already collected endorsements from most of the AFL-CIO's 56 member unions -- as well as that of the Change to Win coalition, which includes the powerful Service Employees International Union and other labor groups that have broken with the federation. Clearly he was going to gain the full support of the House of Labor.

Still, the AFL-CIO's endorsement is an important one for a candidate who is working to define his appeal to white working-class voters, who tended, toward the later stages of the primary fight, to support Obama rival Hillary Clinton.

The federation's endorsement means that more than $50 million in direct spending by the AFL-CIO will now aid Obama in battleground states where union membership remains higher than the national average -- including Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. He'll also benefit from member-to-member advocacy by unions, which have gotten better and better at bringing political messages to the shop floor. And, while union members are no longer counted on to vote in lock-step for the list of candidates who run with the official support of organized labor, the AFL-CIO stamp of approval will convey legitimacy and credibility to a candidate who remains less familiar to many working-class voters than McCain.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who was slow to jump on board the Obama bandwagon, is certainly on message now. Here's the memo he sent to union members late last week:

"With 10.5 million members from every walk of life, the AFL-CIO has endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president.

"Barack Obama's record demonstrates he is a champion for working families and his proposals will improve life for generations of working people and our children. Barack Obama says, 'Politics didn't lead me to working folks; working folks led me to politics.' He was raised by a working mother and grandparents, worked as a community organizer in a Chicago neighborhood devastated by the closing of steel mills, fought for working families in the Illinois state Senate and earned a 98 percent AFL-CIO voting record as a U.S. senator. Barack Obama is not someone who just talks the talk -- he walks the walk with working families, on picket lines, in organizing campaigns and in bargaining for a better life.

"Learn more about his record, proposals and background at www.MeetObama08.com.

"With his emphasis on what America once again can be, and his commitment to lead for all rather than the few, Obama has reinstilled hope for a better future and inspired millions of new voters.

"If ever working families needed change we can believe in, it is now. Working families are struggling in an economy that works for the few, not the many. We're squeezed by stagnant wages, soaring costs for health care, gas and food and the sellout of America's middle class.

"With 80 percent of the public saying our country is headed in the wrong direction, it's time to turn around America. And the first step is electing Barack Obama.

"Find out more and take action at www.MeetObama08.com.

"This is a make-or-break election. We cannot afford to allow the destructive politics and policies of the Bush administration to continue. We need an economy that works for working families -- with health care, good jobs, fair rules for global trade, a robust middle class and the opportunity for every worker to join a union and bargain for a better life.

"Barack Obama will lead the change we need.

"In solidarity,

"John J. Sweeney"

In a related development, the union that is arguably the AFL's most militant affiliate, the 80,000-member California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, endorsed Obama.

Back in 2000, CNA was the prime labor backer of Ralph Nader's Green Party run, providing critical support to the presidential candidate in California, where he earned more than 10 percent of all the votes he won nationwide.

CNA never hesitated to object when Obama's commitment to genuine health care reform seemed to waver during the primary campaign, and its endorsement of the presumptive Democratic nominee was a wary one. As such, it ranks as one of the most important Obama will receive, since it suggests that Obama is winning the backing of labor groupings that have not been afraid to break with Democrats.

Here's what CNA says:

"Our first concern is the disintegrating health care system. The unconscionable rise in the number of uninsured and underinsured Americans, the pain and suffering of families who must choose between paying for needed medical care or their mortgage, and the crime of a callous insurance industry refusing to provide care patients need, is the hallmark of the past eight years and a national shame.

"Yet Sen. McCain offers virtually no change in the failures of the Bush administration. His prescription of tax credits for those who can most afford them and further deregulation of an already barely regulated industry will only perpetuate the disparities of a health care system which has abandoned so many.

"By contrast, Sen. Obama is at least grappling with ways to achieve universal coverage, to address the financial calamity of those confronting the price-gouging health care industry, and to expand regulatory oversight over the insurance companies.

"However, Sen. Obama's plan alone is insufficient. The only effective solution is a fundamental transformation with a single-payer, improved Medicare-for-all system, similar to what exists in every other industrialized nation.

"In his campaign, Sen. Obama has said that if he was starting from scratch he would favor a single-payer approach. America's nurses know that we are starting from scratch. We have hit rock bottom in health care, the very reason RNs from coast to coast are campaigning for single-payer reforms.

"It will be our intent to persuade Sen. Obama, and, in January, President Obama, that he should support and sign legislation establishing an American single-payer system."

CNA's endorsement is one that progressives should keep in mind, as it suggests a smart approach to the candidacy of a Democrat who is significantly better than his Republican foe when it comes to issues of concern to workers but who will require plenty of prodding if he's elected.

John Nichols is associate editor of The Capital Times. 

John Nichols  —  7/01/2008 5:20 am