Democrats Push for Union PRO Act in Legislative Package
Union supporter Bernie Sanders is trying to push the PRO Act to the top of the priority list by inserting it into a legislative package.
Boss Sweeney: “We’ll Win the War”
AFL-CIO Boss John Sweeney, smarting over the defeat of the Card Check Scam Bill in the U.S. Senate, told a group of 500 union delegates that “they may have lost a battle over legislation making it easier for unions to organize workers, but they can still win the war by electing a labor-friendly president next year.”
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports:
“We need a bigger majority in the Senate and we need to replace one of the most anti-union presidents of the United States, and I believe we’ll do just that,” he told delegates of the Utility Workers Union of America.
Most critically, Sweeney laid down the law — if you want to benefit from our political largess you will support elimination of the secret ballot election for workers.
“We had no grandiose ideas that we’d get 60 votes. This campaign will end in 2009,” he said, referring to when Bush’s successor takes office.
Sweeney said the AFL-CIO will require any candidate it supports for president to back the bill to eliminate secret ballot elections for union certification.
That’s one litmus test many candidates won’t fail — in the Senate, every democrat supported the bill and its negative consequences for rank and file workers.
