Despite the cold weather, Austin progressives gave a warm welcome to worker-hating Wisconsin governor Scott Walker today in front of the Austin Hilton. Walker was in Austin to speak to the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a right-wing group that advances an extremely conservative agenda.
A large crowd of people from labor organizations, progressive groups, and allied organizations showed up at 11:30 to send a message: Scott Walker's anti-worker policies won't be tolerated in Texas! We know what Walker is doing in Wisconsin to teachers, police officers, firefighters, and public employees. We know Walker is slashing funding from higher education and trying to balance the budget on the backs of working people. We don't like it when Republicans do that here in Texas, and we sure don't like it when folks like Scott Walker do it in Wisconsin.
Despite the low temperatures (Wisconsinites, how do you stand it? It was in the 30's here today!!) the crowd was fired up, chanting anti-Walker rhymes across the street from the hotel. At one point, a group of TPPF guests peered from the window. Perhaps they were surprised to see that the 99% actually cares when the 1% tries to stomp out the worker protections and regulations that created the American middle class. Some of the TPPF folks even came down to talk to a few of the protesters.
To the right is TPPF Vice President of Communications Josh Trevino taking in a sign that reads "Unions: the folks who brought you the weekend. Scott Walker: that guy that makes you work the weekend!" If you like having weekends, fair wages, relative income equality, no more child labor, employer-based health coverage, and the family and medical leave act, you have labor unions to thank.
Labor unions work hard to help all workers retain basic protections, and have set standards for workers in the public sector and several unionized industries that in turn have helped all other working folks do better. Labor organizations provide a way for workers to band together and demand fair treatment: living wages, safe working conditions, basic benefits, and a way to seek redress against employers who exploit their workers. I wish every worker, public and private sector alike, had the protections that labor union members receive. Sure, a few CEO's may make a few million dollars less a year, but isn't it worth it for the rest of the 99% to do just a little bit better?
During the rally, organizers, including Becky Moeller, President of the Texas AFL-CIO, at right, reminded the crowd of Scott Walker's close relationship with the Koch brothers, conservative billionaires who fund right-wing and conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, and organizations linked to the Tea Party. The crowd chanted back, "Show me what plutocracy looks like!" "This is what plutocracy looks like!" Scott Walker's administration is certainly what the plutocracy looks like: he serves the leaders of massive corporations that care more about executive profits than their workers. Rather than helping to grow the middle class and give more Americans a chance to these folks push for policies that widen our income inequality and force working families struggle to get by with less and less.
It's no surprise to see many of the current GOP presidential candidates standing up for Walker -- they all want to perpetuate his anti-worker policies on a national level. Walker's denunciation of workers' rights has become a rallying cry for the entire Republican Party.
Here in Texas, progressives watched as Wisconsinites stormed their state capitol last spring to stand up for worker's rights. We cheered as Democrats won two special recall elections to the Senate last fall. Now we're excited to see the citizen-driven effort collect hundreds of thousands of signatures to force a recall election. Walker has been forced to raise over $7 million dollars to combat the effort, half of it coming from people outside of Wisconsin. There's no doubt that the 1% will fight tooth and nail to keep Walker in office.
Wisconsin organizers, what y'all are doing to kick out your failed Governor is inspiring to all of us here in Texas, who wish we had the ability to recall our own disastrous Republican, Rick Perry. We're happy to stand with you in your fight against policies that hurt working folks, and we're inspired by your effort to send a real message to Republicans who pursue rabid union-busting efforts.
Keep up the good work. As far as many of us at the rally today are concerned, the only person in Wisconsin who needs to lose his current job is Scott Walker!
Labor unions and working Americans scored a big victory this week when President Barack Obama used recess appointments to fill three vacancies on the National Labor Review Board. The NLRB is the independent governmental agency that conducts elections for labor union representation and addresses unfair labor situations. The three vacancies filled by Obama enable the board to resume issuing decisions on labor-related issues. The positions had been vacant since the Bush administration, as Republicans threatened to filibuster Obama's nominees. In the meantime, the Supreme Court ruled that decisions by the remaining two members were invalid due to lack of a quorum.
Well, not anymore! In addition to his recess appointment of Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Obama has filled the three NLRB vacancies. To give more context on this situation, BOR invited René Lara & Ed Sills from the Texas AFL-CIO to explain the significance of these appointments.
Obama's Recess Appointments Send Some Bullies a Message
By René Lara & Ed Sills, Texas AFL-CIO
President Obama's aggressive decision this week to make recess appointments after Republicans signaled they would confirm no one, no matter how qualified, to important posts, follows through on his warning in 2008 that his opponents should not bring a knife to a gunfight.
The president's recess-appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and three labor law experts to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to re-establish a quorum at that agency acknowledged that the White House had no option but to take on forces that seek to stifle the act of governing.
Seen in full context, the election of Obama in 2008 was followed by a level of partisan behavior by Republicans that is unprecedented in our lifetimes. We would readily concede that no minority party gives any president a free ride, but it has been a very long time since a minority party behaved with the utter lack of nuance we have witnessed in the last three years.
The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, baldly declared that the major goal for his party, rather than accomplish any intrinsic good for Americans, was to defeat Obama in 2012. And Republicans have validated McConnell's view time and again. Even after the 2008 election had provided the clearest mandate a Democratic president had received since the days of President Johnson, Republican senators systematically used the filibuster to stop legislation and appointments that had clear majority support. The shut-down strategy paid off, at least temporarily, in the 2010 elections, when the economy swooned in the aftermath of the Bush-era recession and Republicans were able to elevate normal minority party gains to historic proportions.
Democrats are no innocents in the partisan wars. But the GOP emphasis on "voter ID" laws and partisan attacks on labor unions are in large part about partisanship. "Voter ID" laws, enacted with virtually no Democratic support, have become a national GOP strategy aimed at doing what poll taxes and literacy tests used to accomplish for white majorities - knocking away percentages of the opposition vote.
The raw partisanship at work in the nation's capital permeates assaults on the NLRB. Attempts to enact union-bashing legislation in New Hampshire, Indiana and other venues seek to tamp down the opposition vote from union quarters. Obama's appointments to the NLRB send a strong signal to Republicans and their business constituency. After all, this is the government agency that is supposed to protect workers who want to form a union to negotiate a contract with their employer. For years that agency has been rendered toothless by laws that allow employers to scare employees into voting against forming a union.
The dismay displayed by Republicans this week over Obama's recess appointments may have more to do with his decision to take on bullies than with the substance of the appointment. But if Obama has to punch a bully, he chose a good place to hit him. The office of the presidency is not without power even against the most recalcitrant Congress or the "trusts" that Teddy Roosevelt busted a century ago.
Obama's patience has finally worn thin, and that's a good thing.
Lara is the Director of Legislation/Politics at the Texas AFL-CIO. Sills is Communications Director at the Texas AFL-CIO.
Ed. Note: The following is an op-ed Becky Moeller, President of the Texas AFL-CIO, wrote about this week's health care debate.
By Becky Moeller President, Texas AFL-CIO
A report commissioned by the health insurance industry and released this week claims that one version of the proposed health care reform bill will raise insurance premiums for families over the next 10 years by $4,000.
The America’s Health Insurance Plans document reminds me of the Transformers movies, where some pipsqueak machine (the saboteur who started spreading tall tales of “death panels”) morphs into a monstrous end-of-movie threat (the big-money opponents of reform). Even the accounting firm that worked on the cartoonish study is disavowing its own estimate, acknowledging that various proposals actually in play would dramatically reduce the cost.
Although the AHIP report clearly has a “Yeah, that’s the ticket” feel to it, one important area in which it doesn’t dare to dwell is the estimate of what will happen if health care reform fails. Those of us who get to see the full cost of annual health insurance premiums know, for example, that health insurance premiums have risen by a lot more than $4,000 over the last 10 years under the current system.
And what will happen over the next 10 years if we repeat the error of past decades and do nothing about rising health insurance costs and declining coverage? A new Urban Institute report breaks down what it will cost those fortunate families who manage to keep their coverage over the next 10 years.
In Texas, the report states, employer premiums will rise by 86 percent. Family premiums will rise by 57.9 percent. And the proportion of uninsured Texans will continue to approach one-third and amount to 7,268,000 people by 2019. That would be fully one in eight of all uninsured Americans.
Those numbers represent a bleak future and cry out for reform, but I would argue that the Urban Institute report is itself flawed. The actual picture would probably be much worse than the numbers suggest because employers in Texas are not likely to sit still as health insurance premiums rise by another 86 percent. They would reduce coverage instead, or hire fewer people, or try to pass along so much of the cost that workers themselves would start to give up on having insurance as more and more of them fall short of what it takes to buy a policy.
The core reform proposals moving through Congress offer a better future for Texas workers and employers alike. Our state, already 50th in the percentage of our residents who are covered by health insurance, cannot condemn 7.2 million people to perpetual health care limbo and hope to enjoy broad economic growth. Texans cannot afford to suffer even more denials of coverage and spiraling costs.
Under a meaningful health care reform bill that delivers coverage for all Americans, employers who do the right thing and provide workers with decent coverage would not have to worry that competitors who take the low road are reaping a huge cost advantage. While the very large majority of workers who now have coverage would simply keep it, an injection of real competition into the system in the form of a public option would control costs and ensure access to quality care.
Meaningful health care reform would make certain that Americans with pre-existing medical conditions would be able to obtain coverage. Reform would eliminate the fiascos in which some insurance companies respond to a major illness by hunting for the failure to report any medical condition, like acne in one notorious example, as an excuse to avoid paying benefits.
Americans have figured out that the status quo in our health care system is the enemy and that future growth depends heavily on fixing the system. Poll after poll shows strong support for a robust public option -- even in states whose lawmakers continue to resist change of any kind. If there was one message in the 2008 election, it was that voters expect meaningful health care reform that delivers decent coverage to all Americans.
There is plenty of room for legitimate debate as the health care bill passes through the 11th legislative hour. But on one point there should be little discussion: as we hear bigger and scarier tall tales about health care reform, the scariest thing of all would be to do nothing. Becky Moeller is president of the Texas AFL-CIO, a state labor federation consisting of more than 200,000 affiliates who advocate for working families in Texas.
The AFL-CIO today endorsed Barack Obama for president, a move that automatically means the Texas AFL-CIO COPE endorsement goes to Sen. Obama.
This election will make history and, for working people, represents a real chance to turn a corner. The AFL-CIO and the Texas AFL-CIO will use all the resources at our command to inform union and union retiree families of the labor issues in the campaign.
Barack Obama's record on labor issues has been outstanding throughout his political career. The news that Sen. Obama plans a full-fledged campaign in Texas is welcome, and we believe his candidacy will help labor-backed candidates up and down the ballot. It is time for the labor movement in Texas to unite for a better Texas and a better nation.
Becky Moeller and Paul Brown also plugged the great new website MeetObama08.org in their press release. The goal of the website is to introduce Obama to union households across the nation.
The Texas ALF-CIO will play a big role in many Democratic victories this November. If President Moeller's prediction that Obama's "candidacy will help labor-backed candidates up and down the ballot" comes true, we could have a Democratic House and Senator Noriega come January.
After thanking BOR for its "coverage of the delegate selection issue involving President Moeller" and expressing relief that "it was resolved amicably," the AFL-CIO has sent along this statement in which Becky Moeller throws her personal support to our nominee Barack Obama.
“I am confident an AFL-CIO endorsement in the presidential contest will arrive before long, but today I am personally and independently urging Democrats, union members and open-minded independents across Texas to rally around Barack Obama’s historic campaign for the presidency.”
“Hillary Clinton’s candidacy made a permanent mark on American political history. As a union activist and as a woman who has fought to break glass ceilings in my career, I joined millions of Americans who saw in Hillary the path to a better, more just society. Democrats in both camps worked to our utmost abilities in this campaign, and it is a tribute to Sen. Obama that he became the presumptive nominee against competition that touched a chord with so many Americans.”
“Now is the time to look at the bigger picture and unite. The issues facing our nation are too important and the gap between the candidates too great to let even the greatest of political primary struggles linger. Sen. Obama has shown he, too, can lead us to a better, more just society. I thank Ron Kirk and all the Obama campaign officials in Texas for declaring that from here on, all Democrats are invited to walk together toward victory in November. At this new juncture, I proudly, wholeheartedly and optimistically support Barack Obama for president. ”
“A new future is at hand for America. We know the path to positive change and we know the path to more of the same. By coming together around Barack Obama’s candidacy, Democrats will write the next chapter in an election for the ages and in the history of our great nation.
The Texas AFL-CIO endorsed the following statewide candidates this past weekend.
U.S. Senate: Rick Noriega
Railroad Commission: No Endorsement
TX Supreme Court Chief Justice: Jim Jordan
Texas Supreme Court Place 7: Sam Houston
Texas Supreme Court Place 8: Linda Yanez & Susan Criss (Dual Endorsement)
CCA Place 3: Susan Strawn
CCA Place 4: JR Molina
CCA Place 9: No endorsement
I am proud to have received the enthusiastic endorsement of the Texas AFL-CIO and other Labor groups representing more than 230,000 working men and women across the state.
Every progressive movement in our nation's modern history has come about because of Organized Labor's courage and steadfast refusal to take its eye off the ball -- protecting the health and well-being of the great American middle class.
Ciro Rodriguez might get back in the race, but we won’t know until tomorrow. Gina Castañada, Ciro's spokesperson, said he will officially decide whether he is running by 5 p.m. tomorrow. If Rodriguez gets back in the race, this will be the 5 announcement declaring his intent to run for Congress in 4 years.
In another twist, The AFL-CIO has already picked their guy.
The Texas AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education (COPE) endorsed San Antonian Albert Uresti in the special election in the newly drawn Congressional District 23, Texas AFL-CIO President Emmett Sheppard said today.
The AFL-CIO mentioned the reasons for their endorsement to include:
Uresti, a retired district fire chief in the San Antonio Fire Department and a long-time member of the San Antonio Fire Fighters Union, is challenging U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio, in a district that newly includes a large portion of South San Antonio. Past election results suggest the district is closely divided on a partisan basis. Uresti is the brother of state Rep. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, who is the odds-on favorite to be the next District 19 state senator.
“Union members in C.D. 23 are impressed with Albert Uresti’s understanding of the issues that concern working people,” Sheppard said. “They also are persuaded he will run a proactive campaign in a district that is somewhat similar to the one in which his brother is campaigning so effectively.”
“In an era of gerrymandering, this is clearly a winnable election for a strong challenger against an incumbent who has voted an agenda that is counter to the interest of working families.”
Is this the gold star Uresti needed to catapult himself to become the candidate in CD-23?
During the rally, organizers, including Becky Moeller, President of the Texas AFL-CIO, at right, reminded the crowd of Scott Walker's close relationship with the Koch brothers, conservative billionaires who fund right-wing and conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, and organizations linked to the Tea Party. The crowd chanted back, "Show me what plutocracy looks like!" "This is what plutocracy looks like!" Scott Walker's administration is certainly what the plutocracy looks like: he serves the leaders of massive corporations that care more about executive profits than their workers. Rather than helping to grow the middle class and give more Americans a chance to these folks push for policies that widen our income inequality and force working families struggle to get by with less and less.
