 President Barack Obama and his political machine are offering
tactical support, eager to repair strained relations with some union
leaders upset over his recent overtures to business.The potent
combination has helped fan the huge protests in Wisconsin against a
measure that would strip collective bargaining rights from state
workers. The alliance also is sending a warning to other states that
are considering the same tactic.
"I think it's a clear message," said AFL-CIO political director
Karen Ackerman. "If you take on middle-class people and try to solve
the budget crises on their backs, there's a price to pay. Many
thousands of people will be energized to fight back."
For Obama, stepping into a confrontation with a governor has its
risks. The president is in a struggle of his own to tame spending,
and siding with unions may cast him as a partisan even as he talks
about setting a new tone in Washington.
For the labor movement, which suffered a bitter split in 2005,
the brash moves by GOP lawmakers such as Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wis.,
have brought unions together in a way unthinkable a few years ago.
Nearly every major union leader -- both public and private sector
-- has united behind an ambitious $30 million plan to stop
anti-labor measures in Wisconsin and 10 other states.
The group at the new "labor table" includes AFL-CIO president
Richard Trumka working with leaders such as Teamsters president
James Hoffa. Until recently, the two barely were on speaking terms.
"There's nothing like the possibility of extinction to focus
people's attention," said former Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich., who
spent more than a year trying without success to reunify the labor
movement.
"They've got everything to lose here, and they're either going to
do something or they're not," Bonior said.
Congressional Republicans are accusing Obama of trying to muzzle
governors who were making efforts to rein in government. House
Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Obama was helping fuel
"Greece-style" protests in the United States, a reference to the
demonstrations that followed Greek efforts to cut government
programs.
"His political organization is colluding with special-interest
allies across the country to demagogue reform-minded governors who
are making the tough choices that the president is avoiding,"
Boehner said. "The president should make it clear to his friends
that the people of Wisconsin, and states across America, can handle
their own affairs without Washington special-interest money and
meddling."
The energy behind labor's discontent is not lost on Obama and his
political operation. The president waded into the fight between
Walker and unions when he told a Milwaukee television station that
any effort to make it harder for public employees to engage in
collective bargaining "seems like more of an assault on unions."
Obama's political arm at the Democratic National Committee,
Organizing for America, helped mobilize demonstrators in
coordination with unions. Democratic Party officials also are
watching government-labor disputes in Ohio and Indiana to see if the
party should step in there, too.
Such visible support for public-sector workers signals an effort
by Obama's organization to smooth a sometimes rocky relationship
with some in the labor movement. Unions have sought reassurance from
the White House that Obama is not pulling away from them as he
ratchets up his overtures to business.
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Labor unions are among the better organized foot soldiers of the
Democratic Party, and party officials are wary of weakening their
political motivation.
"I think Democrats here are upholding the right principle," said
Democratic pollster Mark Mellman. "Failing to give support to this
principle would be a real problem as far as the Democratic
constituency is concerned."
Besides lobbying and public demonstrations, the unions are
considering ballot initiatives, costly legal fights and even
launching recalls against newly elected GOP lawmakers. They are
planning to seek help from like-minded progressive groups,
immigration activists, environmentalists and religious leaders.
They expect momentum from the protests to spill into the 2012
election cycle, when they can try to punish Republicans they accuse
of overreaching. Unions are focusing on the states with the most
serious attacks and where they have the strongest ability to fight:
Florida, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New
Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The blessing of the White House could especially help mend
relations with the American Federation of Teachers, which has
criticized Obama's support of charter schools and teacher merit pay.
The group's Wisconsin affiliate is helping lead the protests in
Madison.
Even Education Secretary Arne Duncan weighed in this past week by
promising teachers' unions during an education summit in Denver that
he would stand by them in states where governors have pledged to
shut down teachers' collective bargaining rights. He specifically
cited Wisconsin.
The efforts by the administration and Democrats are not without
risk.
Obama and the national party are challenging a cost-cutting
governor even as Obama comes under attack for not trimming enough in
the federal budget. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Friday
that Obama was not trying to undermine efforts to rein in state
spending, but was only objecting to approaches that would curtail
bargaining rights.
With unemployment at 9 percent, the public is not particularly
sympathetic to public-sector employees.
"On the politics, we worry that this will be seen less as an
attempt to help the middle class broadly and more as an attempt to
help a union or an interest group," said Matt Bennett, a vice
president at the centrist but Democratic-leaning Third Way. "That
does not have a deep wellspring of support among the middle class at
the moment."
[Associated Press;
By SAM HANANEL and JIM KUHNHENN]
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
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