"So long as you stand by the public option, we will stand with you," new AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told President Obama in his acceptance speech last week at the labor federation's convention in Pittsburgh.

Organized labor has spent millions backing President Obama's healthcare reform agenda, but the president's failure to defend the public option and his proposal to tax high-cost health insurance threatens to drive a wedge between labor and the White House.

So far, Obama's health plan flies in the face of all three of the non-negotiable demands Trumka outlined: no public option, no employer mandate, and no taxes on high-value plans. To add insult to injury, the labor's long sought after Employee Free Choice Act has gone by the boards in the all-out push for healthcare reform.

Many see Obama's decision to impose punitive tariffs on Chinese tires as a way of buying the support of pro-labor Democratic legislators for his health plan, as this Xinhua news analysis suggests. Xinhua, China's official government news agency, is hardly a neutral observer, and the story's sourcing is weak, but the claim is plausible enough to merit further scrutiny.

Labor is one of the most powerful constituencies within the Democratic coalition. Unions are rich sources of money and manpower for political machines. The White House knows that the Democratic Party's prospects in the midterm elections are heavily dependent upon the good will of the union movement.

Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein  · 

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