AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka
The union movement is beginning its traditional campaign season dance with Democrats, in which union leaders push Democratic candidates to make working people's issues a priority and pledge to fight inequality, but ultimately are left with the non-choice between Democrats and Republicans. Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO, gave a speech Tuesday morning outlining a set of values that unions expect to see from candidates they'll support. "The field remains open," Trumka said, and "the labor movement's doors are open to any candidate who is serious about transforming our economy with high and rising wages."
Outlining an agenda including raised wages, paid sick leave, expanded overtime eligibility, funding for infrastructure and education, and support for collective bargaining, Trumka asked:
The question is, will our candidates listen? Will they seize this opportunity? I wonder, and so do the vast majority of working Americans. The truth is we’re skeptical.
Are we wrong to be skeptical? I don’t think so. A surging army of workers, activists and families are tired of taking “maybe” for an answer. We’re tired of scared politicians who won’t stand up for what’s right. Listen to this: About one-third—30%—of working class voters after the last election said they couldn’t see any significant difference between the two parties. [...]
Of the working class voters we surveyed, 80% of Democrats and Republicans, 80%, say both parties do far too much for Wall Street and not nearly enough to help average folks.
That said, Politico's Gabriel Debenedetti and Brian Mahoney are
not wrong when they write:
The reality? AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and labor will probably have little choice but to get on board the Clinton bandwagon.
But, Debenedetti and Mahoney report, Clinton's campaign is actively reaching out to unions to discuss policy. If she's taking their support for granted, she's not making it obvious at this stage of the campaign—and remember, in the 2008 primary, Clinton had substantial labor support.
In the end, there's getting on board and getting on board—an endorsement and some pro forma support vs. an all-out effort—and different unions will have different approaches to 2016. But when it comes down to it, unions face the same experience so many of us do, trying to push Democrats to the left, but then looking at Republican candidates and wanting to do anything possible to stop them, even if it means an imperfect Democrat.