LaborDay-08-(1-14):NWLP
8/12/08
10:03 AM
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Obama to union leaders: ‘I can’t do it without you’
WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) —
Democratic presidential nominee Sen.
Barack Obama (D-Ill.) told more than
2,500 union leaders nationwide that “I
can’t do it without you” if he is to win
the White House this fall and advance
workers’ causes when he gets there.
In a nationwide 15-minute confer-
ence call arranged by AFL-CIO Presi-
dent John Sweeney, Obama, speaking
from Iowa, reiterated his pro-worker
positions, specifically twice mention-
ing his determination to push and sign
the Employee Free Choice Act, the
legislation designed to help level the
playing field between workers and
bosses in organizing and bargaining.
“If I’m elected president, I’ll sign
EFCA because if the majority of
workers want a union, they should
have one,” he declared.
“And we’re going to have a presi-
dent who isn’t afraid to say labor
needs to be strong, a Department of
Labor that works for workers and a
National Labor Relations Board that
follows labor law, not management
dictates,” he added.
Obama also promised to negotiate
new international trade agreements
with worker rights in them, create
three million new “green” jobs, and
create two million jobs “building
locks and dams and roads.” A lot of
union workers, he noted, would get
high-paying jobs “aboard those earth
movers” and other construction equip-
ment in those projects.
But, drawing on his experience as
an organizer on Chicago’s South Side
— before he entered the Illinois Leg-
islature and the U.S. Senate —
Obama warned unionists that he could
not win the election by himself.
Grass-roots organizing, he said, is
much more important and effective
than top-down commands.
And the unionists’ efforts would be
doubly important, Obama said, be-
cause the Republican Party “doesn’t
have any new ideas, so they’ll spend
their time attacking me, instead.”
The attacks, from Republican nom-
inee Sen., John McCain (R-Ariz.),
have already started.
“So we depend on you to tell them
about where I am on workers’ issues,”
Obama said. Those issues include not
only EFCA, but universal health care,
the suffering economy, and what to do
about rising unemployment and fore-
closures.
“It’s a simple idea” that Obama
wants the unionists to advocate: “We
have mutual obligations towards each
other” economically and elsewhere. “I
am my brother’s sister, I am your sis-
ter’s kids.” By contrast, the Republi-
can idea is “you’re on your own,” he
said.
Obama got a rousing ovation at the
start of his call from a crowd jammed
into the large hall at AFL-CIO head-
quarters, and Sweeney introduced him
by saying that “it would be nice to
look across the street” at the White
House “and see we have a friend
there” after eight years of President
George W. Bush.
Neither the senator nor Sweeney
took questions after Obama’s talk.
Obama’s phone line was electroni-
cally dropped. The operator tried but
failed to reconnect him.
Obama’s economic emphasis fol-
lowed a closed-door meeting on July
28 with 20 economic advisers from
both parties, as well as Sweeney and
Change to Win chairwoman Anna
Burger. What impressed the group,
Sweeney said, was Obama’s willing-
ness to listen to new ideas, not just
talk about his plans.
“He has a great understanding of
the problems faced by working fami-
lies,” Sweeney said. Neither divulged
specifics of what was discussed, but
Sweeney told Washington Post
columnist Harold Meyerson after the
session that “people need to be confi-
dent that the next president will help
create jobs that actually enable fami-
lies to keep up with rising prices.”
And Economic Policy Institute
head Jared Bernstein, another partici-
pant, called Obama “an ‘and’ guy, not
an ‘or’ guy” in considering economic
plans. Bernstein said the senator
agreed that a second economic stimu-
lus package is needed.
Thanks for putting us on top.
Portland General Electric congratulates Oregon’s top performing
utility team – the men and women of IBEW 125. PGE thanks all of
our crews for their operational excellence and focus on safety.
PortlandGeneral.com
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
AUGUST 15, 2008