"Labor’s Civil War over Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton"

[Mike__M]

From Ari Paul at TeleSUR

The United Food and Commercial Workers union has been fighting a Sisyphean campaign to organize workers at Wal-Mart, and yet it endorsed one of the anti-union company’s former directors, Hillary Clinton, for president. The sole national demand of the Service Employees International Union is a $15/hr. minimum wage, and yet the union endorsed the only Democratic candidate to oppose this, Hillary Clinton.

Making this all the more perplexing is the fact that the former Secretary of State faces a challenge from her left, Senator Bernie Sanders, who has campaigned directly on raising the hourly wage floor to $15.

“It’s unbelievable, it’s beyond comprehension,” (Communication Workers of America President Larry Cohen) said, adding that workers relate more to Sanders than Clinton. “He’s one of us. He lives in a simple house in Burlington, Vermont. He drives a small Chevrolet. Until recently, he only flew in economy.
(snip)
As Cohen sees it, it’s not hard to understand why the clock-punchers of the country pound the pavement for Sanders despite what their national union says. “It’s not his words, it’s a reiteration of his life,” Cohen said. “People see that this is the chance to elect a working-class candidate.”

It should be remembered that the locals and regional affiliates represent rank-and-file interests more. National unions are staff-driven umbrella organizations whose interactions are mostly with the Beltway world of lobbyists and professional campaigners. It speaks volumes when affiliates break and choose a different candidate. Those are the organizations in shabby offices, with members coming in to discuss grievances or health benefits, in a way where their voice might actually be part of the discussion. The fact that regional affiliates are giving the nod to Sanders means there's real rank-and-file energy to campaign for him.

Once again South American media sees what's going on here in the U.S.

Source: http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Labors-Civil-War-over-Bernie-Sanders-and-Hillary-Clinton-20160218-0021.html

[noretreatnosurrender]

1. Confused

I just read a post that showed the United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 5 in California endorsed Bernie. Any info on that? Are they endorsing by each local or the entire union?

[Mike__M]

2. Exactly

That's the "Civil War" of this article's title: discrepancies between the endorsements by the national organizations and the endorsements by the local affiliates

[noretreatnosurrender]

4. Sorry about that

I didn't even see the link. I always read the articles but didn't on this one. My apologies. Thanks so much for posting this.

[mike_c]

3. this is exactly what I'm seeing at the membership and labor council levels....

The closer one gets to the rank and file, the stronger the support for Senator Sanders. Alternatively, labor boards and Political Action/Legislation committees lean toward Senator Clinton. I think union government relations teams are inherently conservative in that they're often more deeply invested in trying to pick the candidate they perceive as most likely to win, since their expectation of future back scratching can only bear fruit if the candidate whose back they scratched gets into office, while the membership chooses candidates based on their assessment of whom can improve their lives the most.