Which Side Are They On?

The greatest threat to repug corporatist control of the economy is labor unions. The systematic destruction of labor unions in the '70s wasn't a byproduct of the stagflation, unemployment economy; it was the cause. Low wages, no benefits, income inequality - all track with the declining influence of the only thing standing between American workers and the serf economy Wall Street demands: labor unions.

Yes, they're still here and still fighting - now against anti-worker DINOs in Congress.

That barely scratches the surface of a list as long as my arm of anti-worker congressmen who have gotten large donations from labor unions. But... according to one of America's most brilliant and outstanding labor leaders, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumpka, that's all about to change.

Addressing the Sheet Metal Workers International Association in Las Vegas this week Trumpka indicated that the honeymoon between Labor and reactionary Democrats-- whether Blue Dogs or the DLC corporatists-- was coming to an end. As a Daily Kos diarist pointed out today, the Sheet Metal Workers union was the first "to have suspended all campaign donations to ALL Democratic candidates until the Employee Free Choice Act and a bill addressing real Health Care Reform are passed... In case anyone forgot, Labor Unions and not the health insurance industry or the Chamber of Commerce have been the biggest financial donor to the Blue Dogs and centrists in the Democratic Party."

Watch Trumka warning Blue Dogs and ConservaDems like Blanche Lincoln-- who now has an interesting grassroots opponent, a member of the Teamsters union-- and Max Baucus that the days of wine and roses are over.

As I wrote back in October, Trumka is a throwback to the days of John L. Lewis and Walter Reuther. It's no coincidence he came up through the United Mine Workers, where the workplace issues are still life and death. The sooner he takes the helm of the AFL-CIO, the better.