In Obama, Labor Finds the Support It Expected

[babylonsister]

In Obama, Labor Finds the Support It Expected


By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: March 1, 2009


John J. Sweeney, the nation’s top union official, often complains that he was invited just once to the White House during George W. Bush’s eight years in office — and even that was at the Vatican’s behest during a visit by Pope Benedict.

If an index is needed for how much closer organized labor is to President Obama than to his predecessor, it might be the number of times Mr. Sweeney, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s president, has visited the White House since Inauguration Day — at least once a week for receptions, bill signings and a meeting on fiscal responsibility.

Mr. Obama has delighted labor by issuing four pro-labor executive orders that reversed Bush policies. He has also appointed a union-friendly chairwoman to the National Labor Relations Board and named a labor secretary whose parents were both union members.

But those changes worry corporate America, especially as Mr. Obama has signaled he will push for legislation that would expand labor’s thinned ranks by making it far easier to unionize workers. Labor leaders expect Vice President Joseph Biden to spell out the administration’s battle plans for the bill on Thursday, when he is scheduled to speak at the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s winter meeting in Miami Beach.

Any doubts that union leaders might have had about Mr. Obama dissolved several weeks ago when, in announcing a new Task Force on the Middle Class, he said: “I do not view the labor movement as part of the problem. To me, it’s part of the solution. You cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement.”

Mr. Sweeney and many other labor leaders were thrilled. “It’s like night and day having a president who believes in helping working people build power,” Mr. Sweeney said. “I look upon Obama as the most pro-union president since John Kennedy, and I have even compared him to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.”

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/washington/02labor.html?_r=1&ref=us

[Xipe Totec]

1. Good. My chief would be proud

If he were alive to see it.

[Omaha Steve]

2. K&R!

Babylonsister is welcome here anytime.

[babylonsister]

3. Gee, thanks! I thought 'Labor' would like this.

:fistbump:

[Earth Bound Misfit]

4. + 1

K & R :fistbump:

[pberq]

5. Great news!

You never know until they actually get in office what they are going to do.

“I do not view the labor movement as part of the problem. To me, it’s part of the solution. You cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement.”