TPMDC: AFL-CIO Prez Warns Dems: Don’t Take Labor’s Love For Granted
Source: TPMDC Evan McMorris-Santoro | May 20, 2011, 4:23PM
Watch out, Democrats, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said on Friday. Your buddies in organized labor are looking to expand the friendship circle.
Trumka’s speech at the National Press Club, billed as a major address by the union, recast the union’s connection to politics as a year-round, national affair — rather than the election-focused, battleground state strategy of the past. Trumka warned Democrats that labor would not always be at their side, suggesting more of the primary battles like the unsuccessful one that labor backed against former Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) last year.
Trumka’s main message to politicians, after a year in which labor has battled broad-based attacks in state legislatures across the country, was a simple one: you’re either with us or you’re against us.
“It doesn’t matter if candidates and parties are controlling the wrecking ball or simply standing aside–the outcome is the same either way,” he said in prepared remarks that he veered little from during the address. “If leaders aren’t blocking the wrecking ball and advancing working families’ interests, working people will not support them.”