AFL-CIO halts PAC contributions, gears up for battle to stop fast track

March 11, 2015 by

AFLCIOUpping the ante in its campaign to stop trade agreements that give corporations more power over the global economy, the AFL-CIO announced today it would freeze all contributions to federal lawmakers’ Political Action Committees and focus, instead, on a ground battle against fast track for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The nation’s largest labor federation announced the freeze, which also applies to its affiliate unions, in a news release today:

The AFL-CIO … and its affiliated unions are freezing all Political Action Committee (PAC) contributions to federal candidates until further notice in order to conserve resources for the historic legislative battle around fast track (trade promotion authority) and the debate over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The Council established the defeat of Fast Track as a top federation priority and passed a statement outlining its commitment to fight any trade agreement that fails to prioritize the needs of working families and advance shared prosperity in the global economy.

The AFL-CIO and its affiliates spent $617,771 on PAC contributions in the 2014 election cycle, according to OpenSecrets.org, the Center for Responsive Politics’ website. Most of the federation’s contributions went to Democrats.

The battle over fast track, which would force members to take an up-or-down vote on 1trade agreements without offering amendments, puts the AFL-CIO in the unusual position of opposing the Obama administration.

Looking for common ground with Republicans who took over Congress this year, the White House has moved fast track and the TPP to the top of its agenda. The AFL-CIO’s PAC announcement puts Democratic members of Congress on notice that labor is unwilling to compromise when it comes to supporting a new vision for trade.

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Labor 2012: Minnesota unions celebrate clean sweep of top priorities

November 7, 2012 by

Volunteers take turf assignments during Midnight Madness, a get-out-the-vote event on the eve of Election Day.

Minnesota unions achieved a clean sweep of their top priorities for the Nov. 6 election, as voters elected pro-labor majorities to the Legislature, tossed a Tea Party incumbent out of office in the 8th Congressional District and rejected a pair of constitutional amendments opposed by labor.

It was a resounding victory for the Labor 2012 political campaign, coordinated by the state’s unions and labor federations.

Shar Knutson, president of the 300,000-member Minnesota AFL-CIO, said the state’s voters “firmly rejected the politics of division, restriction and corporate greed,” and she applauded the work thousands of union volunteers did to educate voters on the issues – and get them to the polls.

The Labor 2012 campaign set five priorities heading into the election cycle. Here’s a breakdown of how the campaign fared on each of them, with a focus on the East Metro:

• Priority No. 1: Winning legislative majorities

After Republicans took control of the House in Senate two years ago, they pushed several attacks on workers, including Right to Work. Unions sought to rebuild pro-labor majorities in the Legislature, targeting endorsed candidates in competitive districts across the state, particularly in suburban areas.

The strategy worked. DFL Party candidates won a 39-28 majority in the Senate and a 73-61 majority in the House. Knutson called it a “pro-middle class majority,” adding that voters “rejected the extremism and gridlock that plagued the 2011-12 session.”

Several labor-endorsed candidates in East Metro suburbs were among the wave of DFLers elected Nov. 6, including seven of eight candidates in districts where the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation targeted its efforts.

The campaign was particularly successful in Eagan, where Jim Carlson, Sandra Masin and Laurie Halverson swept all three legislative seats in Senate District 51. Halverson’s victory was particularly sweet for union members, as her incumbent opponent, Doug Wardlow, had been a leading proponent of Right to Work in the House.

Greg Clausen (right), the labor-endorsed winner in Senate District 57, talks with Rep. John Lesch at Midnight Madness.

Other winners in the East Metro included Greg Clausen in Senate District 57, Susan Kent in Senate District 53, Barb Yarusso in House District 42A and Will Morgan, who won by 170 votes in House District 56B.

• Priority No. 2: Defeating Chip Cravaack

Rick Nolan, the labor-endorsed candidate, won a decisive victory in the 8th District, which stretches from the Iron Range south into Chisago County. Cravaack shocked longtime Rep. Jim Oberstar two years ago, but he fell out of favor with his DFL-leaning district after aligning himself with the Tea Party in Congress.

• Priority No. 3: Defeating the constitutional amendments

With money and manpower, Minnesota unions supported successful efforts to defeat two amendments on the Nov. 6 ballot: one that would have limited the definition of marriage to one man and one woman, and another that would have required voters to show photo identification at the polls.

Jamie Gulley, an officer of the 30,000-member SEIU Minnesota State Council, said unions opposed the amendments out of “the basic principles of fairness.”

“We believe that both of these amendments would strike a blow to justice and humanity for a significant number of Minnesotans,” Gulley said. “Because of this, we made a decision stand with a broad coalition of organizations insisting that Minnesotans ‘Vote No.’”

Voters rejected two constitutional amendments opposed by the state’s unions.

• Priority No. 4: Win local elections

In St. Paul, voters overwhelmingly passed a labor-backed school levy referendum. And candidates for county commissioner endorsed by the St. Paul RLF swept races in Chisago and Ramsey counties.

• Priority No. 5: Re-elect Barack Obama, Amy Klobuchar and DFL members of Congress

Obama and Klobuchar won by large margins, as did U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum in a redrawn 4th Congressional District. Voters also returned Rep. Tim Walz in the 1st District and Rep. Keith Ellison in the 5th District.

Unions’ political work isn’t over, however.

“It is now time to begin the work of completing Minnesota’s economic recovery and help build a state that can be a national leader for decades to come,” Knutson said.

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Fifty years ago, another Romney was bad news for union members

November 1, 2012 by

A name certain to be in the headlines this November – for better or for worse – was also in The Union Advocate’s front-page headlines 50 years ago.

The top story in the Nov. 16, 1962, edition analyzed the results of gubernatorial races across the country: “Rocky, Romney, Scranton Win Big For GOP; Nixon, Others Defeated.”

George Romney, father of the Republican nominee for president in 2012, was elected governor of Michigan, defeating the labor-endorsed Democratic incumbent John Swainson by 78,000 votes. The Advocate considered Romney’s win something of a fluke, noting the narrow margin of victory and “great hoopla” surrounding the prominent automobile executive’s campaign.

“Upsetting as the Romney victory was to the Democrats, it was the only statewide one scored by the Republicans, indicating that Romney won more on his glamour than on the Republican program,” The Advocate reported.

Of course, readers can expect a more dire tone in these pages next month if George Romney’s son upsets another labor-endorsed Democratic incumbent on Nov. 6, 2012.

[The Union Advocate’s “This Month in the Archives” feature offers a look back at what our newspaper was reporting from 5 to 100 years ago. Our digital archives are online, searchable and free to anyone. Click here for access.]

• 100 Years Ago: Gompers re-elected

In its Nov. 29, 1912, edition, The Minnesota Union Advocate celebrated the re-election of Samuel Gompers, the first president of the American Federation of Labor, to another term in office during the AFL’s national convention in Rochester, N.Y.

Gompers defeated Max Hayes of Cleveland “by an overwhelming majority and amid scenes of enthusiasm,” The Advocate reported. “In fact, the demonstration in his favor was never before equaled at any of his numerous elections.”

Gompers, who helped found the AFL in 1886, served as its president from 1886 to 1894, and again from 1895 until he died in 1924.

By 1912 labor newspapers like The Advocate were referring to Gompers as the “grand old man.” The Advocate described his opposition as stemming from “the radical wing of the convention.”

Gompers had this to say to delegates after his re-election: “If this American Federation of Labor makes changes that are fundamentally in conflict with the views for which I have contended all my life, I shall go along as a union man, but you will have to choose another president.”

• 75 Years Ago: St. Paul Teachers hold City Council accountable

After accepting wage cuts to help the City of St. Paul ride out dwindling tax revenues during the Great Depression, union teachers put the city on notice in November 1937 that they would sue, if necessary, for full payment of the salaries adopted in an ordinance passed by the City Council two years earlier.

“The teachers declare their intentions of fulfilling their responsibilities by teaching the entire month of December, but insist that the city will be held to strict accountability to live up to its contract,” The Advocate reported in its Nov. 25 edition.

In a resolution passed at a joint meeting of the American Federation of Women Teachers and Men Teachers, St. Paul educators pointed out that their average salary, $1,521, was almost $600 less than their peers in cities with populations above 100,000.

The resolution called on the City Council to use its full taxing power – the city’s levy had been below the $30 per-capita limit for several years – to fulfill the promises made to St. Paul’s teachers.

“We believe the people of St. Paul want the city to honor its just obligations,” the teachers’ resolution said. “We do not believe they want the teachers to teach for nothing.”

• 25 Years Ago: Homeless Union organizes in St. Paul

The National Union of the Homeless founded a St. Paul chapter Nov. 21, 1987, in a convention held at the Labor Centre, The Union Advocate reported in its Nov. 30 edition.

“About 200 homeless and low-income people turned out to hear speakers, elect officers and pass resolutions on homelessness and other issues,” Editor Barb Kucera wrote.

The homeless union got its start two years earlier in Philadelphia, advocating for job training and affordable housing for its members. “When homeless people were barred from the polls for having no permanent address, the union won lawsuits that reaffirmed their right to vote,” The Advocate reported.

St. Paul Trades and Labor Secretary-Treasurer David Foster gave the convention’s keynote speech. Organized labor, he said, is starting to recognize “we share a lot more with people at the bottom of American society than the people at the top.”

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Bobby Kasper: Obama, Democrats the right choice for union members

October 24, 2012 by

Bobby Kasper

We are at a political crossroads. The economy is still struggling from the devastatingly deep hole that President Obama inherited from George W. Bush. The political action that we take today through November 6 will decide our future as union members.

We have a responsibility to get out the vote, with our state and federation endorsed candidates. The working middle class needs to take the lead to get our economy back on track. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan and their republican allies are willing to sabotage the recovery for their political interests.

I ask you today to commit to volunteer to phone, door knock and register to vote. This November’s election is about the future of our country. The labor movement must be committed to the policies of “prosperity economics” – reforms that will unite America by creating jobs, promoting economic security and rebuilding our democracy.

Four years ago working union families chose to go a different direction. We chose to stand for fairness, a voice for all of the middle class. Nov. 6 we have a choice to build a labor movement of working men and women to move America forward.

President Obama and the Democratic Party stand for the right to bargain collectively for a better life. As President, Obama stated “We’ve come too far to go back. Now is the time to continue moving that vision forward.”

– Bobby Kasper is president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.

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Statewide labor convention opens with political call to action

September 17, 2012 by

Election-year politics dominated Day 1 of the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s 51st Constitutional Convention in Rochester yesterday, as speakers, including U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, urged delegates to take action in support of labor-endorsed candidates up and down the Nov. 6 ballot.

Klobuchar, whose campaign for a second term has the state labor federation’s endorsement, said unions will succeed in the 2012 elections by sticking to their vision for the U.S. economy – one that creates shared prosperity, preserves opportunities for all and rewards those who work hard and play by the rules.

“As hard as this (economy) is, it could be so much worse,” Klobuchar said. “We have to keep focused on the economic agenda, and that’s what I’ve done.”

Klobuchar and other speakers drew a sharp distinction between President Obama’s economic plan and the vision offered by Republican nominee Mitt Romney. One candidate puts middle class families first, she said; the other serves the interests of the richest 1 percent.

“In order to bring the debt down – which it actually doesn’t do – they’re proposing $250,000 in additional tax cuts for people making over $1 million,” Klobuchar said. “That’s totally the opposite of what we need to do.”

Liz Shuler, secretary-treasurer of the national AFL-CIO, called Romney the “outsourcer in chief.”

“At Bain Capital he destroyed jobs and bankrupted companies like they were toys in his personal toy chest,” Shuler said, adding that Romney “even outsources his own bank accounts to Bermuda and Switzerland and other tax havens so he doesn’t have to pay his fair share to support this country.”

Delegates to the convention also heard about political efforts closer to home, including the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s plan to rebuild labor majorities in both houses of the Minnesota Legislature. Republicans in the House and the Senate, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson said, have done much over the last two years to divide workers, weaken unions and make it harder to vote – but they haven’t done much to create jobs.

“They tried to throw everything they could at us,” Knutson said. “They tried to weaken collective bargaining, gut prevailing wage, reduce safety standards and attack the professionals that educate our children… There were hundreds of attacks.”

Ultimately, DFL Gov. Mark Dayton helped stave off most attacks on workers. But as Nov. 6 draws closer, Knutson said, union members must remember how narrow Dayton’s election was.

“If 2.4 percent of union members had voted for Emmer instead of Dayton, Tom Emmer would be governor, and our state would look just like Wisconsin,” she said, referring to the all-out attack on collective bargaining that took place after Republicans swept control of that state’s government in 2010.

“If we do what we need to do – knock the doors, make the calls, get those fliers out at the worksite, talk to our friends and neighbors – we will elect a pro-worker majority to the Minnesota Legislature that will put us, middle class families, to work,” Knutson added. “If we fail, Right to Work will come back with a vengeance.”

After the conclusion of business Sunday, the convention floor became the site of a brief Labor 2012 campaign phone bank, as delegates called fellow union members on behalf of endorsed candidates from Southeast Minnesota.

The Minnesota AFL-CIO’s convention continues today. Delegates participated in workshops this morning, and were scheduled to hear from more speakers, including Dayton, this afternoon.

Today’s schedule also includes presentations on union organizing, the campaigns to defeat both constitutional amendments on the Nov. 6 ballot and the lockout of 1,300 American Crystal Sugar workers in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa.

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Fair Trade Coalition plans rally against corporate control of trade pact

June 27, 2012 by

Negotiations are underway on what experts say will become the largest free-trade agreement in the world, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). But as important as this deal will be for workers worldwide, it has been negotiated behind closed doors, away from public scrutiny.

On July 9 the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition will stage a rally to protest these secret negotiations. The coalition of labor, environmental and agricultural organizations will take its message to one of the multinational corporations granted access to TPP negotiations: Cargill.

The rally will begin at 10 a.m. outside Cargill’s offices at 9380 Excelsior Boulevard in Hopkins. Activists will call on U.S. trade negotiators to release their proposals and let the public see what its own government is doing.

“The only people who have access to these negotiations are ‘cleared advisors,’” the Fair Trade Coalition says in a flier promoting the rally. “These people are corporate lobbyists, including from Cargill, that have used their financial clout to get in the room. That’s right, corporate lobbyists have more access to laws than our own members of Congress!”

Click here to read Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition Director Josh Wise’s column about TPP negotiations, published in the April 2012 Union Advocate.

TPP negotiations are scheduled to resume next week in San Diego. Nations included in the talks are Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the U.S.

The agreement could create legally binding policies regarding agriculture, workers’ rights and intellectual-property rights – without any input from U.S. lawmakers during negotiations.

Not surprisingly, 132 members of Congress have signed a complaint, addressed to the Obama administration’s chief trade negotiator, that TPP negotiations have not been sufficiently open to public or congressional scrutiny.

Drafts of the agreement leaked to the public suggest it will grant corporations broad new powers, including the right to skirt domestic laws and regulations by filing suit before international “trade tribunals” – something Obama promised he would not support during the 2008 campaign.

Free-trade pacts have been notoriously bad news for American workers. The North American Free Trade Agreement, passed in 1994, cost the U.S. nearly 700,000 jobs, most of them in manufacturing, according to a 2011 study by the Economic Policy Institute.

For more information on the July 9 rally, contact Josh Wise at 952-818-5474 or josh [at] citizenstrade [dot] org.

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