(CNS)- AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told Hardball host Chris Matthews, "I don’t know what the difference is between a Democratic Socialist and a Democrat."
During an appearance on the MSNBC program last week, Trumka was asked by Matthews about Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
"Nobody’s called him a Socialist - except Bernie Sanders calls himself one, you don’t think that’s important?" Matthews asked.
RICHARD TRUMKA, PRESIDENT AFL-CIO: The Affordable Care Act does need some modifications to it, because as it does right now, what's happening is, you have employers that the law says if you pay your, if your employees work 30 hours or more a week, you've got to give them healthcare. So they're restructuring their workforce to give workers 29 and a half hours so they don't have to provide them healthcare. They’re also doing some taxing to nonprofit plans to pay for for-profit plans.
From the “What On Earth Where They Thinking?” files: Union boss Rich Trumka, head of the powerful AFL-CIO, has taken the White House to task for the president’s support of a Walmart program to expedite hiring of military veterans,according to the Hill. Seriously.
You may recall that, in January, Walmart announced a hiring initiative to provide jobs (at least part-time) to any veteran who passed a basic background check. Iwrote supportively of the program at the time.
It may not be a comprehensive and enduring answer to the problem of veterans’ unemployment, but it’s a start, and it’s driven entirely by private-sector initiative. To their credit, the Obama administration offered praise for Walmart’s effort.
Enter Trumka with his ham-handed critique of this well-meaning initiative. Why would a union leader go on record criticizing a veterans’ hiring initiative? Could it be that he has a personal axe to grind with Walmart because they haven’t caved to his every demand? Either way, we wondered if maybe something had been lost in translation, so we checked out Trumka’s full statement at the AFL-CIO website.
Keep Shameful: on reading…
Strongly disagree with reasoning and shocking decision today by the panel of Republican judges on the DC Circuit
— Richard L. Trumka (@RichardTrumka) January 25, 2013
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka tells The Atlantic’s Molly Ball that so-called card-check legislation will happen in a second Obama term:
“[...] You’ll see it,” he says. “That’s within the next term.” How is that possible, without a Democratic House of Representatives or 60 votes in the Senate? Trumka smiles. His eyes twinkle.
“There’s another election between now and then,” he says. And the AFL-CIO isn’t going anywhere.”
The legislation would make it easier for labor unions to organize by abolishing the secret ballot — and was a top labor priority during Obama’s first term. And it’s one of the enduring sources of tension between the labor movement and the Obama administration.
Keep on reading…Noted Liberal, labor supporter and former Democratic candidate the late George McGovern explains why card check is wrong.
(Reuters) - ... A quarter of AFL-CIO members did not vote for Obama in 2008.
"Some of this I think was pure racism," said Trumka. "Some of them would be gun owners, some of them would be right-wing. Some of them would be ... died-in-the-wool Republicans."
Democrats acknowledge that Obama is unlikely to capture the white male vote, but say he can be re-elected if he minimizes the damage because of his huge edge with black and Hispanic voters.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is out with a scathing statement attacking Mitt Romney and “his Republican allies in Congress” on the June jobs report.
“The cruel reality is Mitt Romney and his Republican allies in Congress are willing to sabotage the recovery in the hope of scoring political points against the President,” said Trumka, whose union endorsed President Obama earlier this year.
Trumka acknowledged the slow jobs growth reflected in Friday’s report, which showed unemployment unchanged at 8.2 percent.
“For America’s working people, the economy is simply not delivering right now,” he said. “The trend of slow job growth is both frustrating and heartbreaking. The economy added only 80,000 net new jobs last month — not nearly enough to bring unemployment down and fuel a robust recovery.”
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has a 4th of July-themed column in the Huffington Post musing on the word freedom and how it is interpreted by the Republican Party. His conclusion is that they use the word to con people.
Let’s call this right-wing “freedom” catch phrase what it really is: a grossly political strategy to dupe the public, which holds the word “freedom” as something sacred.According to Trumka, giving people or groups complete discretion in how they conduct their affairs is a bad idea because they might make the wrong decision. That is, they might decide to do something that Trumka thinks is a bad idea, such as opting out of Social Security.
Keep on reading…
Last month, the AFL-CIO endorsed Obama, quieting all the talk about any rift or lingering differences between the President and organized labor. Many Dems hope enthusiastic union support will help Obama limit losses among blue collar whites in the swing states — something that could prove decisive in the 2012 election.
Those hopes may have hit another snag: That rift has cracked open a bit once again.
In an interview just now, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka ripped into Obama for taking a key step this weekend towards the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement — which Trumka claimed would have domestic political ramifications for Obama. Trumka said continuing betrayal of labor would make it harder to turn out supporters this fall and was already muddying Obama’s efforts to draw a sharp contrast with Mitt Romney over who represents the 99 percent.
“The more these things happen, where workers interests are subjugated to other interests, it has a cumulative effect, making it harder for us to energize our members and get them out in the numbers necessary in the fall,” Trumka told me.
“The candidates have to decide whether they represent the 99 percent or the one percent,” Trumka continued. “Each time this happens, it obscures the clearness with which the president represents the 99 percent.”
Keep on reading…
(The Hill) — ...The AFL-CIO chief said he was surprised that Democrats on the deficit panel proposed cuts to social programs.
“I have personally talked to members of that committee and told them that this was the wrong direction to go in,” Trumka said. “So the question was, was I surprised? Yes, I was surprised to see some of the suggestions coming out of the Democratic side.”
The labor leader noted that the AFL-CIO’s state affiliates pick which candidates to endorse in congressional races. But he said anyone who votes for cuts to social programs would likely risk the support of unions come next election.
“This is the one of things that will be considered when we do endorsements,” Trumka said. “Although I have a tough time envisioning us endorsing people who actually voted for major cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.”
(Yahoo! News) — What’s the best way to get Americans back to work?
Raise taxes, according to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Specifically, he wants to raise the federal gas tax as a means to fund infrastructure spending. “We need a dedicated source of revenue to create infrastructure in this country,” he tells Aaron Task in the accompanying clip.
“We need to create jobs. The best way to do that is through infrastructure development.” Simply maintaining the existing infrastructure in this country will cost $2.2 trillion over five years, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. That doesn’t include Obama’s objective of high-speed rails and green energy projects.
