Union Members Say They Want More Hardball From Obama (Update2)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a4b...

By Holly Rosenkrantz

Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Union activist Harriet Applegate has had enough of President Barack Obama seeking compromises with political opponents to advance his agenda. It’s time for some “hardball,” she said.

“He should ignore the opposition, because they are mean- spirited and hateful,” Applegate, executive secretary of the AFL-CIO for a swatch of Ohio including Cleveland, said at the labor federation’s national convention this week. “Whether he is enough of a hardball player remains to be seen.”

Labor activists at the convention in Pittsburgh, which culminated today with the election of Richard Trumka as the federation’s next president, say they are frustrated at the pace of political change in Washington. The Democrats they helped send to Congress and the White House haven’t moved fast enough to expand health insurance coverage and make it easier for workers to form unions, convention delegates said in interviews.

Obama and Democratic lawmakers should “get on with it and do what needs to be done,” said Marian Garth-Saffold, also of Cleveland.

“We had a mandate,” said Kim Floyd, executive secretary of the Wyoming AFL-CIO.

Labor’s demands are out of step with the political climate in the nation’s capital, said Charles Craver, who teaches labor law at George Washington University Law School in Washington. Provisions labor unions want in the health-care and union organizing bills don’t have much chance of being included, he said.

‘Big Disappointment’

FULL story at link.