12 building trades unions plan to
boycott ’12 Democratic convention
WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) —
Twelve building trades unions have de-
cided not to financially support or send
members as delegates to next year’s
Democratic National Convention in
Charlotte, N.C.
In a formal letter to the Democratic
National Committee (DNC) chair, U.S.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz of
Florida, Building and Construction
Trades Department President Mark Ay-
ers cited several reasons for the action.
One is that North Carolina is hostile to
unions and is a right-to-work state, and
has laws banning collective bargaining
by state and local workers. There are no
union hotels in Charlotte, Ayers added.
Charlotte beat out cities with a heavy
union presence, including St. Louis and
the Twin Cities, for the Democrats’ nod.
“We find it troubling that the party
so closely associated with basic human
rights would choose a state with the
lowest unionization rate in the country
due to regressive policies aimed at di-
luting the power of workers,” Ayers
wrote Wasserman-Schultz.
But another reason, said department
spokesman Tom Owens, is that build-
ing trades union members are upset
with the attitude of Congressional De-
mocrats and the Obama Administration
towards organized labor, taking union-
ists’ support for granted.
“We just didn’t want to financially
contribute to the party,” Owens said.
SEPTEMBER 2, 2011
“We’re strapped for resources” and
would rather use money on member
mobilization and organizing, he added.
“And we haven’t seen any action on
jobs” by anyone in Washington, D.C.,
Owens said. “So we didn’t want to be
funding sky boxes and suites” in Char-
lotte.
The DNC has not formally replied to
Ayers’ letter yet.
The building trades’ reasons echo
dissatisfaction with Obama and the De-
mocrats elsewhere within labor. Union
leaders fault politicians for not working
to create jobs — especially construction
and factory jobs — when unemploy-
ment nationally is 9.1 percent.
Unionists have also chafed at the
Administration’s refusal to lobby for the
Employee Free Choice Act, which
would help level the playing field be-
tween bosses and workers in organizing
and bargaining.
And they got very angry when
Obama repeatedly compromised away
key parts of his health care overhaul, in-
cluding the public option, before forc-
ing unions to swallow taxes — starting
in 2018 — on so-called high-value
health insurance plans. Obama also
never supported government-run single-
payer health care, which 21 unions
backed.
Besides the building trades, the In-
ternational Association of Machinists
(IAM) isn’t going to the Democratic
Convention. General President Thomas
Buffenbarger told Press Associates
Union News Service earlier this year
that was because his union is holding its
own international convention at the
same time in Toronto.
But IAM has never been enthusiastic
about Obama, and vice-versa. The
union backed other candidates in the
2008 Democratic primaries. The cool-
ness continues: When union leaders re-
cently met with the president to discuss
the economy and jobs, Buffenbarger
was pointedly not invited.
UNITE HERE was also upset by se-
lection of Charlotte, but it has yet to re-
spond whether it will either contribute
or send delegates to the convention.
President John Wilhelm strongly urged
Democrats to select either St. Louis or
the Twin Cities as convention sites.
Both, like Charlotte, are in swing states,
and both have enough unionized hotels
to house delegates and other attendees.
But not all of the union movement is
dismayed with Obama. Prominent
unionists, led by retired AFL-CIO Ex-
ecutive Vice President Linda Chavez-
Thompson, sit on the Democratic Na-
tional Committee. She is a DNC vice
chair. The National Education Associa-
tion’s convention earlier this year en-
dorsed Obama’s re-election, and a reso-
lution passed at the Steelworkers
convention Aug. 16 pledges the union
to work for Obama’s re-election.
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
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