PAGE 4 | June 19, 2015 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Congressman Schrader calls AFL-CIO president a ‘bully’
Oregon Democratic Congress-
man Kurt Schrader called na-
tional AFL-CIO President
Richard Trumka a “bully” in an
interview with a Washington,
D.C., blog—because the AFL-
CIO has begun campaigning
against Democrats who support
trade promotion authority, also
known as fast track.
Fast track is legislation to
make it easier to pass more
NAFTA-style trade deals, and
its defeat has been the AFL-
CIO’s top priority for months. In
March, the labor federation de-
clared a moratorium on political
campaign contributions until the
issue is settled, and in June, the
AFL-CIO began running televi-
sion and online ads criticizing
Democrats who support fast
track. Trumka has even threat-
ened to withhold support from
Democrats who vote for fast
track.
Apparently, Schrader consid-
ers that bullying. [Schrader an-
nounced May 8 that he supports
fast track, and voted for it on
June 12.]
“We’re solid on labor issues,”
Schrader told CQ Roll Call, a
publication for Washington,
D.C., insiders. “To have this be-
come a litmus test for one indi-
vidual issue, I think that’s de-
meaning. ... To actively cam-
paign against you when you’re
with them 80 percent of the
time—I don’t take kindly to bul-
lying. That gets my dander up.
And I hope it gets the dander up
of most every single member of
my party.”
In fact, Schrader has a life-
AFL-CIO Summer School Aug. 7-9 in Eugene
EUGENE—The annual AFL-CIO Summer School will be held Aug.
7-9 at the University of Oregon in Eugene.
The weekend event, coordinated by the Labor Education and Re-
search Center (LERC) of the UO, offers courses on organizing, collec-
tive bargaining, labor issues and strategies, and more.
Participants also will have lots of opportunities to connect with union
members from around the state to share insights and ideas. There will
be a solidarity picnic, music, and ice cream social.
Summer school courses and workshops qualify for a maximum of
eight hours toward LERC’s Union Leadership Education and Devel-
opment (U-LEAD) certificate.
For more information or to register, go online to http://pages. uore-
gon.edu/ lerc/.
360-695-5555
U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader
time record of voting in accord
with AFL-CIO recommenda-
tions 84 percent of the time, as
of 2013. But some of his votes
that the AFL-CIO called
“wrong” were doozies:
• In 2009, he voted against the
Dodd-Frank financial reform
bill, which passed in response to
massive Wall Street fraud. That’s
the bill that created the Con-
sumer Financial Protection
Agency, and regulated financial
derivatives for the first time.
• In 2010, he voted against a bill
giving federal employees four
weeks of paid parental leave. He
also voted against the DREAM
Act, which gives a path to citi-
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zenship to children of undocu-
mented immigrants who gradu-
ate from high school and serve
in the military or attend college
for two years.
• In 2011, he voted for a bill that the
AFL-CIO said would cripple ef-
fective workplace safety regula-
tion by adding years of delay to
the rulemaking process of agen-
cies like the Occupational Safety
and Health Administration
(OSHA) and the Mine Safety
and Health Administration.
• In 2013, he introduced legislation
directing President Obama to fol-
low the unofficial “Simpson-
Bowles” recommendations. The
recommendations included cut-
ting Social Security benefits,
shifting Medicare costs to bene-
ficiaries, lowering tax rates for
the wealthy and corporations,
and increasing tax incentives for
shipping jobs overseas.
In each of those cases,
Schrader voted with Republi-
cans and against the over-
whelming majority of Democ-
rats. In the House, he’s co-chair
of the Blue Dog Coalition, a
group of moderate Democrats
who want to “transcend partisan
politics.”
Schrader’s “bully” charge
came in an interview with Roll
Call’s politics blog, At the Races
—after a group of 20 House
Democrats met June 3 with
House Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi to discuss their
worries about labor’s fast track
threats.
But not every Democrat
thinks withholding contribu-
tions is bullying.
“Here’s the deal,” Congress-
man Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.)
told the blog. “Everybody goes
to the well of labor when they’re
running for office in terms of
contributions. … Early on in
this process, anybody around in
the last session knew that with
[trade] coming up, that was go-
ing to be a litmus test, and so to
say now that labor is being
mean or over the top in terms of
their criticisms of Democrats
who are going to vote for [TPA]
is kind of like a late realization
when you’ve already taken the
money and the support.”
ONLINE EXTRA
The Roll Call article:
http://bit.ly/1S7T4ec
Schrader’s labor voting record:
http://bit.ly/1FVjEyM