Union leaders confront race-and-politics issue head-on
>Archive - Front Page Headline CHICAGO (PAI) -- Facing the fact that many unionists may be reluctant to vote for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for the presidency because he is African-American, union leaders meeting in Chicago decided to confront that issue head-on by repeatedly emphasizing to members to "vote your jobs" and that economics trumps race.
In a closed-door meeting August 4 of the AFL-CIO Political Committee, the day before the federation's 2-day Executive Council meeting in Chicago, the other leaders were challenged on the issue by Postal Workers President Bill Burrus, himself African-American, several participants told Press Associates Union News Service.
After initial discussion that skirted the issue, Burrus spoke up, declaring "This is a bunch of ____. It's about race." Then, after laying out the case that union leaders must lead, he was vigorously applauded.
The problem is that economic issues, where Obama takes uniformly pro-worker stands, are often overridden by gut reactions against the Illinoisan. There were no hard estimates on how great a percentage of unionists would let race, not economics, decide their votes. That's especially notable because people often tell pollsters they oppose Obama for other reasons. But the leaders acknowledged the problem.
So the consensus, as participants put it, was that union leaders must emphasize to their members, allies and families, face-to-face and over and over, that economics comes first and that if they want to preserve their jobs against the business onslaught which is aided and abetted by the GOP, they must vote for Obama.
As one put it, leaders, who have the credibility with their members, must tell them that otherwise "they're voting against themselves. We have to speak up and say so."
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard L. Trumka has already hit the issue - and got a mixed reaction. Trumka gave a blunt speech emphasizing that economics-over-race theme, to the Steel Workers convention in Las Vegas. He has handled angry letters and e-mails since. "You're asking me to do something I can't do," the writers say.
The answer, as one other leader put it, was to tell unionists, over and over, that the pro-worker policies Obama backs would help them, while the GOP policies that its presumed nominee, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) espouses, "would lead to the complete demolition of the middle class," as one other unnamed participant put it.
"I tell people 'vote your job,'" AFGE Vice President Andrea Brooks said in a separate interview. "What's good for your job is good for America."
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