WASHINGTON (AP) — Union leaders said Wednesday they will mobilize millions of members in 26 states with a message about “economic patriotism” as they try to help Democrats hold onto their majority in the House and Senate.
The nation’s largest labor federation plans to spend more than $50 million leading up to the November elections, targeting 70 House races and 18 Senate races with television ads, phone banks and leaflets.
In a response to the anti-establishment anger of Tea Party activists, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka called on voters to think about “economic patriots” and “corporate traitors.”
“We’re looking for leaders who will call out corporations that ship our good jobs overseas, leaders who will reject unfair trade deals, leaders who will fight for a middle class economy and put us on a path to make things in America again,” Trumka said at a news conference.
The federation is also running a nonpolitical TV ad in major markets over the Labor Day weekend to boost the image of unions as organizations that help improve the lives of working people.
The help can’t come soon enough for Democrats facing high voter frustration over a lingering recession and a tea party movement that has galvanized opposition to President Barack Obama and other Democratic leaders.
Some Democrats have complained that unions wasted $10 million earlier this year in an unsuccessful effort to defeat Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln in the Democratic primary. Labor leaders said it was important to show Democrats they could not take union support for granted. The move was political payback for Lincoln’s refusal to support a broader health reform package and a bill that would make it easier for workers to form unions.
In his pre-election comments, Trumka framed the midterm elections as a choice between working to improve the economy under Democrats and Obama or returning to the days “when Wall Street and corporations ran wild and controlled the agenda.”
Among the Democratic Party’s most loyal boosters, the AFL-CIO runs one of the nation’s largest and most sophisticated political operations. Union volunteers have already distributed some 2 million flyers at more than 300 worksites. Over the next two months, hundreds of union activists will talk to millions of workers going door-to-door, at work sites, by phone and mail.
One edge this year for the labor movement is better coordination with unions that broke away from the federation in 2005. For the first time since the split, the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union will pool resources so they can reach more voters and work more efficiently.
AFL-CIO political director Karen Ackerman said the combined spending with SEIU and other unaffiliated unions on congressional races would likely top $100 million.
But the federation is getting a bit of a late start this year compared to 2006, when they had their political operations humming several weeks earlier. Part of that had to do with their focus on a busy legislative agenda, including getting Congress to extend unemployment benefits and send money to cash-strapped states that would prevent layoffs for thousands of teachers and other public workers.
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Comments (49)
IOUQuidProQuo
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 8:00pm>>>10.02.10<<< Tides Foundation $$, U.S. Tax dollar$ at work, DC Stimulus Plan, union pension money misdirected! I wish the HARD WORKING UNION member who PAY their MONTHLY dues would end the misappropriations of their MONEY. There will be NO more BAILOUTS we are B*R*O*K*E as a NATION – duh.
Year End budgets use it or lo$$ it. Travel, lodging, food, etc. How about those Stimulu$ DOLLARS only earmarked for UNIONS: Tax Dollar Boomerang$! Take a GOOD look at the crowd 10.02.10. THE UNIONS ARE EXEMPT from the 2014 HealthCare REFORM MAZE!
Report Post »IOUQuidProQuo
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 8:45pmMy guess – GDP & worker productivity will rise W/E 10.02.10 since UNIONS won’t be dragging down the production lines!
Report Post »Lionheart
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 7:26pmThis Novembers election will also be a referendum against the unions and their outrageous under funded pensions . Non union tax payers should not have to prop up under funded union pensions . We must tell the unions to stop trying to buy elections with union pension funds and then begging the govt. to bail them out . I‘m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more !!!
Report Post »Mousey
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 11:55pmD$#N RIGHT
Report Post »JD Carp
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 6:30pmThis is typical Union bully tactics. Now with the 10-2-10 copycat rally they will force the members to attend just to try to beat 8/28 Beck Rally. It is so amusing to see them scrambling like this to trump something they don’t understand. I will patiently wait to see if they follow through on family, faith, hope and charity thing at their rally. If it works like 8/28 then it’s a good thing, if it turns into a hate fest then certainly we will all know the truth.
Report Post »Skwerl
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 4:33pmUnions back Dems? Poppycock! Next you’re going to tell me the sky is blue!
Report Post »123halle
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 3:17pmit took me forever to get a password so I can speak my mine . fisrt bless you glenn second it is the unions not the people in the union destroying the country . when union started to grow the mob control it . and being married to someone that lived in little italy says once in you never leave .
Report Post »or you die . just matbe we can break up the unions because they don’t speak for the people
GOD BLESS
ann
chaschl
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 1:24pmUnions are in it for the profit. If they spend $50M, they will expect much more in return.
Report Post »wendylrogers
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 1:06pmThe Unions and Washington are doing a good job at destroying the country that our forefathers fought for. Liberals do not want equal treatment for all. They want slavery for all induced by the government, because they believe that we the people do not have enough sence to live our lives without their control.
Report Post »sadam
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 11:43am$100 million would be better spent by the workers who were forced to contribute to the union. Union leadership are just like politicans – they love spending someone elses money on their wants. That $100 million should be supporting the AFL-CIO membership who are out of work NOT the government. These people are cockroaches.
Report Post »Solvitor Ambulando
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 11:39amThey have it all wrong! 8.28 is not about crowds… or power… or politics. It was about prayer…and raising our voices to God… turning back to God. If the unions want to go to the mall to counter our gathering on the basis of politics….they have it all wrong. If they want to go to the mall to raise their voices to God and pray for our country, I am sure every person at the 8.28 rally would approve of their gathering. We all need to be open to God. As Glenn said, we need to be on God’s side and that is what we gathered for… to seek God.
It is not a question of God being on our side…. or their side…We need to turn back to God. We need to be on God’s side.
Report Post »Solvitor Ambulando
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 11:29amThey have it all wrong!
Report Post »wingedwolf
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 11:28amWhen unions were begun in this country, they were absolutely necessary. At that time, my grandfather was working 14 hour days in the coal mine for $2.00 per day with no days off unless he was sick. He died of the Black Lung. That being said, I have seen, since the 1970′s, (as a resident of Pittsburgh, PA, remember the steel industry) the unions becoming so powerful that they can’t be reasoned with. When any organization becomes that big, it is ripe for corruption, and the unions in this country have proven the old saying, “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” We are going to have to use R.I.C.O. laws to loosen the grip of the unions in this country because their members, knowingly or unsuspectingly allowed them to become such corrupt organizations. I, for one, strongly suggest that we go about doing that with all due haste before they do any more damage to this great country.
Report Post »Codger
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 9:46amWhat part of “our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor“ does ”“economic patriotism” fall under Mr Trumpka? I searched and found that you’ve raised your own salary from $165,000 to $238,975 over the last four years and I‘d bet that’s a base salary that doesn’t include perks. You’re such an honorable man Richie… NOT!
Report Post »TexasPatriot
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 8:37amThere was once a time unions served a purpose, but, alas, they have singlehandedly priced the American worker out of the game and killed industries in the process. Of course the union leaders are still livin high on the hog!
Report Post »Barb1954
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 7:43amWhen will Union MEMBERS call for AUDITS of their UNION Organizations’ FINANCES??? Unions NEED OUR TAX $$’s for Teachers, Police, etc BUT they can SPEND over $100 MILLION on POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS?
NOT ANOTHER DIME! Union Members……it’s up to YOU to put an END to this MADNESS!
Report Post »P@rick
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 7:24pmYeah, they are just making themselves look like idiots. I just cant wait for it to all come back and b!#ch-slap them in the face
Report Post »Hammerun
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 5:15amI have a slight hunch that in November the unions are going to find out they haven’t got enough money to buy all of the votes they need to keep their lap dogs in office. People are pissed off at this nonsense.
Report Post »donnag
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 9:27amI agree Hammerun. And let the unions spend the money and show their faces…this will only fuel the opposition against them! The unions are out of touch with the working Americans, as is Obama, by speaking up they remind us how much they ARE NOT WANTED.
Report Post »mollymonk
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 2:17amI didn’t follow politics too much before Obama… Now I’m learning who really is controlling the democratic party, “The Unions”!
Report Post »AmericanPatriot
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 5:06pmYou’re right. It’s the unions and George Soros who are funding and controlling the Dems.
Report Post »S.Hill
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 2:00amUnions supporting Democrats? what is this madness you speak of? Am I living in some parallel universe? =P
Report Post »smartalex
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 1:31amI’m amazed! I thought that Reagan had smashed union power in this country. What happened? Why are they coming back?
How do we put a stop to these revolutionary Marxists?
Report Post »Skwerl
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 4:35pmMuch like cockroaches and Twinkies- they are notoriously hard to remove.
Report Post »Cynewulf
Posted on September 1, 2010 at 11:38pm“UNIONS GEAR UP TO SUPPORT DEMS IN NOVEMBER”
Now that’s unexpected!
Report Post »Johnnybravo
Posted on September 1, 2010 at 10:48pmhttp://www.savingtherepublic.com/Philosophy.html
Report Post »comradekoolaid
Posted on September 1, 2010 at 10:13pmLiberals say they want equal treatment for all — so why are unions allowed to misrepresent their employees who don‘t agree with liberal ideology and aren’t forced to contribute in equal portions to all parties??
Report Post »I’m sure libs can reconcile and rationalize this discrimination; too bad LBGTs aren’t dominated by conservatives — then you libs would have a real problem…
libertybelleva
Posted on September 1, 2010 at 7:58pmOh they’re “mobilizing” alright…let’s see how many brainwashed union members they can bus in for this Oct 2 rally on the Mall.
http://dailycaller.com/2010/09/01/labor-and-liberal-groups-to-hold-oct-2-rally-on-mall-to-counter-beck-tea-party/
I cannot wait to hear the mainstream media’s crowd count for that! I challenge them to leave the place as clean as the Restoring Honor crowd did (and I sincerely hope they do!).
Report Post »robco
Posted on September 1, 2010 at 7:55pmThe union leaders are gearing up to spend our union dues to promote an agenda we do not agree with and there is nothing we can do about it. It sickens more of us than you all might think. In fact, even some of our more staunch democrats members are not saying anything about the upcoming elections. I do know many members who are not voting the way the union tells us to.
Report Post »jjs
Posted on September 1, 2010 at 7:52pmThe unions are going to be the true test of the strength of our conservative movement, Beck and others, including ourselves, need to get out ahead of these folks. They are evil and are Marxist driven. If we do not stop the unions we will not win. If the unions win they will destroy the country.
Report Post »PFNW
Posted on September 3, 2010 at 9:35pmJJS– I am in a union and I am not marxist driven.
Report Post »FoundersKeeperUSA
Posted on September 8, 2010 at 5:05pmYea people that are members in unions are probaly not marxist or have an agenda its the labor leaders people are talking about.There the radicals that use millions of member dues to persue there marxist views.
Report Post »blessings
Posted on September 1, 2010 at 7:16pm!!!! $100 million ??????
. . . SEIU and other unaffiliated unions on congressional races would likely top $100 million????? think of all those union workers … and their hard earned money – like it or not – going to politics instead of going into their pension programs.
… “union workers unite and fight this madness”.
jabler
Posted on September 1, 2010 at 9:40pmI am in the UFCW union and disagree with nearly every political agenda that they choose to engage. I am hoping my vote this year will show the unions that all of their lobbying and ads are a waste. That was one good reason to support Blanche Lincoln in the Primary for the good folks in Arkansas. (I hope she loses in the General was glad she won in the Primary.)
Skwerl
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 4:43pmFight the good fight Jabler! It is incumbent on the union membership to stand up to their real oppressors…Union Leadership. They don’t care about you, your livelihood or your economic security. Will they help you find a new gig when your worksite closes? Do they pay your bills when a strike is called? Does the money taken in dues fund your pension?
Report Post »They don’t represent you, and only care for the money you pump down the rat hole that leads to some smarmy politician’s pockets. Let it be said a politician can’t stand a pile of money gathering interest…it must be spent as quickly as it is printed, loaned or given.
Beckofile
Posted on September 8, 2010 at 5:43pmWhat Unionized industry is flourishing? Well I guess when it comes to the taxpayer bailing out the pensions then it will be the union that flourishes….but I repeat what industry is flourishing.
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