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The NEW Union Agenda
Richard Trumka has just announced the new agenda AFL-CIO will be pursuing. Here are the most pertinent comments:
In an interview with The Huffington Post, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called the current climate “absolutely” the worst he has seen during the course of his 40-year career in organized labor. His 11-million-plus federation has been forced to adjust, he said, and is making a concerted push to expand their campaign operation so the organization can better pressure lawmakers while in office, and not just on the campaign trail
(snip)
“What we are now focused on is doing a couple of things differently,” Trumka said. “In the past, we would build our structure six to eight months before the election,” he added. “Now we’re not going to do that. We’re going to focus our resources on building a structure that has total fidelity towards America’s working people, both union and non-union working people. We’ll do it 12 months a year, so they’ll be able to transition from electoral politics, to advocacy, to accountability with no effort. And it will continue to build greater strength for workers after the election and in between elections.”
The comments from the AFL-CIO chief provide a detailed outline of the vision he has in store for a tinkered — but still-powerful — campaign apparatus. To execute that vision, the union federation is outfitting itself with some new tools, including a super PAC that will allow it to raise unlimited funds from corporations, individuals and other unions.
The AFL-CIO doesn’t just plan to extend its political engagement, but to hyper-localize it as well
This article was posted over at the Huffington Post website. In reading through the comments made in response to the article, apparently there are some Democrats who do understand that if our nation doesn’t have the kind of environment that actually encourages business development, the opportunity for Unions to move forward on any agenda of this type are going to be extremely limited. In fact, many of those responding to the article actually agreed with the fairly conservative position that Unions may have served a positive purpose in our society many years ago, but what our country needs most right now is to eliminate any obstacles that get in the way of free enterprise so that we can see improvements in our overall economy.
Please note that Trumka mentions building a structure that has “total fidelity” to both union and non-union people. He also mentions that the AFL-CIO has plans to “hyper-localize” as well. I’m going to suggest that the means by which the Unions intend to accomplish these goals is by application of specific methods that Cold Warrior has already mentioned here. Since his explanation of what is likely to happen is better by far than any I could present, I would recommend taking the time to read what he has presented. If those who support Union goals succeed at this on local levels, they will have greater influence in policy decisions, even in right-to-work states.
As conservatives, we need to be able to present a coherent policy position to the general public that might persuade them that the conservative vision for our country is indeed the best option open to us in order to turn our nation around.
Rather than trying to define how this should be done, I’m going to ask each person who reads this to post who is interested in doing so to post a comment below stating how they would go about presenting a conservative point of view on these issues.
Just look at it as a sharing of conservative ideas.
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