[CTC] AFL-CIO leader warns labor could sit out 2016 presidential race

Thu May 28 15:05:27 PDT 2015

Two articles below…

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/243292-afl-cio-leader-warns-it-could-sit-out-2016-fight-over <http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/243292-afl-cio-leader-warns-it-could-sit-out-2016-fight-over>

AFL-CIO leader warns labor could sit out 2016 fight over trade

The Hill
By Ben Kamisar
May 28, 2015
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka warned Hillary Clinton that his powerful labor union coalition might not endorse her presidential campaign if she comes out in support of the controversial trade deal making its way through Congress.

Trumka first said in an interview with USA Today that it would cost Clinton the enthusiasm of organized labor if she backed the Trans-Pacific Partnership being negotiated by the Obama administration.

He then said it was not inevitable that the AFL-CIO will endorse whoever wins the Democratic nomination.  
“You can not endorse for president, that's conceivable if both candidates weren't interested in raising wages,” he told USA Today in a video interview posted Thursday <http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/05/27/capital-download-richard-trumka-obama-clinton-trade/28009479/>. 

“If we are convinced that neither candidate has that, I think we would spend our money elsewhere, probably on Senate candidates and congressional candidates and governors and state houses and things of that sort where we'd have a much greater effect.”

Clinton has walked a fine line on the TPP. The issue has pit President Obama against much of his party, with opposition led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Clinton has refused to take sides, though she backed the deal when she served Obama as secretary of State.

The Senate last week passed fast-track, which would prevent the TPP from being amended by Congress, making it much easier to finish negotiations. The House fight over fast-track is expected to dominate Capitol Hill next month.

Trumka said Democratic senators who backed fast-track had left “their base,” warning that the vote could sour labor support in future elections and that the vote will be a “major” part of the group's report card that's sent out to members around election season.

“They decided to pass something that was going to cost jobs and lower wages, and they're going to have to answer to their constituencies for that whenever they face them,” he said. “They'll be held accountable; there's no question about that.” 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/05/27/capital-download-richard-trumka-obama-clinton-trade/28009479/ <http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/05/27/capital-download-richard-trumka-obama-clinton-trade/28009479/>

Trumka: Disappointment with Obama, a warning for Hillary

USA Today
By Susan Page
May 28, 2015

WASHINGTON — The nation's most powerful labor leader, vowing to defeat President Obama's key trade legislation in the House next month, warnedHillary Clinton of serious political consequences if she fails to take a stand against the Pacific trade pact that the president is campaigning for as a major part of his legacy.

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, predicted that no more than 20 House Democrats would vote for Trade Promotion Authority, the "fast-track" bill that on Friday passed the Senate.

"Thirteen Democrats left their base," he said of the Senate vote in an interview with Capital Download. "They decided to pass something that was going to cost jobs and lower wages, and they're going to have to answer to their constituencies for that." He added: "They'll be held accountable; there's no question about that."

Organized labor has been waging a fierce battle against the legislation, which would require Congress to approve or reject without amendments the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal among the United States and 12 other Pacific Rim nations. Many labor unions have frozen campaign donations as they lobby against it.

The battle between two customary allies — a Democratic president and the country's biggest labor federation — underscores the complicated politics of Obama's attempts to pass legislation through a Republican-controlled Congress during the final two years of his tenure. It also exposes challenges ahead for Clinton, who praised the emerging Pacific pact as "the gold standard" in her memoirs as secretary of State but has avoided declaring her view of it since becoming a presidential candidate.

"Unfortunately, it falls far short of being the gold standard," Trumka told USA TODAY's video newsmaker series in an interview at AFL-CIO headquarters, just across Lafayette Square from the White House. "It's not silver. I'm not sure it's copper or some other form of metal, but it's not gold, because it's going to cost us jobs and it's going to lower wages in this country."

Trumka said he didn't know where Clinton now stood on the issue.

"She's going to have to answer that," he said. "I think she won't be able to go through a campaign without answering that and people will take it seriously and it will affect whether they vote for her or don't vote for her."

If Clinton backs the trade pact and the fast-track authority, there will be costs, he cautioned. "It will be tougher to mobilize working people. It'll be tougher to get them to come out excited and work to do door-knocking and leafleting and phone-banking and all the things that are going to be necessary if she is the candidate and we endorse her to get elected. It will make it far more difficult."

It even is "conceivable" that the AFL-CIO wouldn't endorse a presidential candidate, he said, "if both candidates weren't interested in raising wages and creating jobs."

Asked whether Obama's presidency had been good for working Americans, Trumka paused.

"The president's been seriously handicapped in his ability to deliver things for the American public, because you've got a determined opposition in the Republican Party that will actually hurt the country to deny him a victory," he began. But he added, "I wish he would have fought for some of the things that are needed as hard as he's fighting for fast track and TPP."

In the Senate vote, Trumka said he was surprised to have lost the support of Democratic senators Benjamin Cardin of Maryland, Chris Coons of Delaware and Patty Murray of Washington state. When the interviewer commented that it's hard to defeat a president, he replied: "We'll see."

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