“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.
I hope you found this article important. Before you leave, I want to ask you to consider supporting our work with a donation. In These Times needs readers like you to help sustain our mission. We don’t depend on—or want—corporate advertising or deep-pocketed billionaires to fund our journalism. We’re supported by you, the reader, so we can focus on covering the issues that matter most to the progressive movement without fear or compromise.
Our work isn’t hidden behind a paywall because of people like you who support our journalism. We want to keep it that way. If you value the work we do and the movements we cover, please consider donating to In These Times.
