Richard Trumka’s Declaration of Independence

http://inthesetimes.com/article/12881/richard_trumkas_declaration_of_independence

Unions in the AFL-CIO will be making plans for this tough election year as the labor federation’s executive council meets in Orlando, Fla., this week, when it is expected to endorse President Obama for re-election. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka discussed some of the political challenges facing unions in a late January interview with In These Times. Here is an edited version:

David Moberg: You’ve made a number of comments about trying to increase labor’s independence in political action. In the past that has often meant endorsing Republicans, or for some people, it’s meant having a separate labor party or something like that. Could you elaborate on what you mean by labor independence?

First of all, it’s about building our structure as well; about getting working people to mobilize, whether they are union members or not; and talking about the differences that are out there. It’s about supporting people that are friends. It’s about having year-round mobilization that can transition quickly from electoral politics to advocacy to accountability; and supporting people that are friends. And those that are real friends will get more attention from us and those that are marginal friends will get less attention, and those obviously that are not friends will get the opposite kind of attention.

But it’s not about the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. It’s about workers having an independent voice in a system, quite frankly, where right now, people can drop in five or six million bucks at the drop of a hat to alter a presidential race. It’s about us having an independent voice and talking to workers, union and nonunion workers.

What are the ways in which you think you are going to develop more of that independent voice this year? Is your Super PAC proposal part of that?

Yes, it allows us to talk to nonunion workers, whereas before we were restricted from doing that. Now we use that Super PAC to talk to non-union workers. Also, we will be doing that year-round so it’s not just during the election cycle. It’s during and after the election cycle.