...Report links GOP filibusters to McConnell campaign cash
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Connell (R-KY), to discuss the resolu-
tions.
Jan. 22 will be the new first day.
Some of the most vocal opponents
of filibuster reform are lobbyists who
profit from the Senate dysfunction.
The Nation magazine reported how
Republican-led filibusters and “silent
holds” on nominations have resulted in
some Big Business windfalls for cor-
porations that just happened to be large
contributors to the senators’ campaigns.
“Sort of an ‘everybody wins’ situa-
tion for lobbyists, lawmakers, and cor-
porations, but pretty much a losing
proposition for the rest of us,” writes
Mike Hall of the AFL-CIO NOW blog.
The Nation pointed to Steven
Duffield, vice president for policy for
Karl Rove’s group Crossroads GPS, as
one of the most vigorous rules reform
opponents, who has touted his ability
to get Republican lawmakers to un-
leash filibusters and holds and who,
“literally sold filibusters, anonymous
holds and the other forms of obstruc-
tion” during his 2011 lobbying work.
Sen. McConnell himself launched
at least eight successful filibusters in
the 112th Congress — including the
jobs creation bill — at virtually the
same time he was collecting campaign
cash from special interests opposed to
those measures, the Kentucky AFL-
CIO pointed out during a press confer-
ence Jan. 4.
The state labor federation unveiled
a new study by the non-profit non-par-
tisan Public Campaign Action Fund il-
JANUARY 18, 2013
lustrating the success of the Republi-
can filibusters in killing legislation that
would have hurt those special interests.
Some of the highlights from the re-
port, “Cashing In On Obstruction”:
• On the very day debate began on a
bill to repeal subsidies to Big Oil, an
astonishing $131,500 in campaign
contributions passed from the hands of
oil donors in Midland, Texas into Mc-
Connell’s re-election war chest. Three
days later the bill failed by filibuster.
• Companies that lobbied against
bringing jobs back to America and
ending tax breaks for offshoring have
given McConnell $1 million to win his
elections and look out for their inter-
ests. Big McConnell donors such as
GE, Microsoft, and Exxon Mobil also
have billions in untaxed profits stashed
overseas.
• Despite once supporting trans-
parency, McConnell has led the effort
to block the DISCLOSE Act and keep
Americans in the dark about the
money flowing into elections. Wealthy
individuals and companies spending
millions in secret money have over-
whelmingly helped elect Republicans,
an essential step in McConnell’s ambi-
tion to become majority leader of the
Senate.
• Sen. McConnell took the unusual
step of filibustering a district court
nominee, former trial lawyer Jack Mc-
Connell, who was vehemently op-
posed by the insurance industry and
the U.S. Chamber of Commerce after
Jack McConnell won a multi-billion
dollar case against lead paint compa-
nies. Sen. McConnell has received
$1.7 million from insurance interests,
and has taken tens of thousands of dol-
lars from one of the lead paint compa-
nies in the case and its parent company.
The report further states that Mc-
Connell gets 84 percent of his cam-
paign cash from PACs and large
donors and only 16 percent from indi-
viduals in Kentucky. He has raised
some $45 million for his elections in
his career, not counting funds he is al-
ready stockpiling for his 2014 race.
The largest donor in the group of 37 is
General Electric, giving at least
$174,812 to McConnell over the years.
It’s followed by Microsoft ($100,750),
Koch Industries ($85,450), and Exxon-
Mobil ($74,300).
“These 37 companies have collec-
tively stashed $445 billion in untaxed
profits overseas instead of using those
funds to create jobs in America. GE,
Microsoft and ExxonMobil also stand
out, with offshore profits of $102 bil-
lion, $61 billion, and $74 billion, re-
spectively,” the report says.
“Congress isn’t working for Ken-
tuckians, but it is working for lobbyists
and corporate interests,” Kentucky
AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan
said at the Louisville press conference.
“McConnell has always put his
donors’ interests before the needs of
middle class families, but now he’s
helped to grind Washington to a halt
when we need someone on our side.”
(Editor’s Note: David Groves, edi-
tor of The Stand, a blog of the Wash-
ington State Labor Council, and Press
Associates Inc., contributed to this re-
port.)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Boeing push for pension
changes may lead to strike
Bargaining between the Society of
Professional Engineering Employees
in Aerospace (SPEEA) Local 2001 and
The Boeing Co. ended Jan. 11 with the
union reporting little progress on key
issues. A key sticking point is Boeing’s
demand to switch new hires to a de-
fined contribution pension plan, i.e., a
401(k).
In an memo following the talks,
SPEEA said “the company indicated
that they still intend medical cost in-
creases, elimination of the pension for
future hires, and reduction of growth in
retirement benefits” for the existing en-
gineers and technical workers.
An affiliate of the International Fed-
eration of Professional & Technical
Engineers (IFPTE), the union repre-
sents 22,950 engineers and technical
workers at Boeing. About 200 mem-
bers work a the Boeing plant in Gre-
sham.
The sides have been in bargaining
since April 2012. In October, engineers
rejected Boeing’s initial offer by 95.5
percent, while technical workers
turned it down by 97 percent. Existing
contracts expired Nov. 25.
After taking a month-long holiday
break, bargaining resumed Jan. 9 with
assistance from a federal mediator.
On Jan. 9 thousands of SPEEA
members took part in “Day of Action”
events throughout the Northwest in
support of negotiations. Members
marched through Boeing factories and
offices or attended updates with nego-
tiation team members in lunchtime
meetings.
International President Greg June-
mann attended a Jan. 10 SPEEA Coun-
cil meeting to reiterate IFPTE’s sup-
port, and to remind workers that
Boeing tried to push them to accept
cuts and takeaways in 2000.
Boeing currently is enjoying record
profits, a completely funded pension,
4,200 airplanes on backorder, and $20
billion cash on hand, the union said.
“Your negotiating teams’ focus is
negotiating a contract that respects
your contributions without going out
on strike,” Junemann said. “But the
folks in Chicago need to hear this loud
and clear: If they provoke a strike by
SPEEA again, all of IFPTE, and a
whole lot of the labor movement, is
ready to show them again that engi-
neers and technical workers deserve re-
spect and their fair share of this com-
pany’s remarkable success.”
The union has filed two unfair labor
practice (ULP) charges against Boeing
since bargaining began. The most re-
cent was Jan. 2. The specific charges
relate to Boeing taking surveillance
photographs of engineers and techni-
cal employees marching inside and
outside the factory on Dec. 12 and af-
ter. The first ULP was filed in October
and relates to Boeing seizing employee
cameras and photographs of union
marches. Both charges are currently
before the National Labor Relations
Board.
“After Boeing tried and failed to
build the 787 on the cheap, SPEEA
members stepped up and saved the
program,” said SPEEA Executive Di-
rector Ray Goforth. “Everything has
now turned around and the company
has developed amnesia about how that
happened.”
Negotiations were scheduled to re-
sume Jan. 16, after this issue of the La-
bor Press went to press.
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