Labor

Labor’s letter to Hillary Clinton 

Union chief warns Tuesday that “no candidate can be all things to all people.”

By Gabriel Debenedetti and Brian Mahoney

The country’s most powerful union leader delivered a speech Tuesday that might best be characterized as a memo to Hillary Clinton, outlining what she must do to earn organized labor’s support and cautioning her against timidity.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka delivered the message that labor isn’t ready to endorse yet — and it won’t “settle for less” than a candidate who meets its criteria.

“We call on all of America’s working men and women—Democrat and Republican, white collar, blue collar and no collar—to join us in supporting the candidate who can and will deliver on the American Promise. That is the standard. We will not settle for less,” he said. “That also means no candidate can be all things to all people and still meet this standard. Standing with working people once in a while won’t work. Candidates can’t hedge bets any longer. “

The reality, though, is that Trumka and organized labor will probably have little choice but to get on board the Clinton bandwagon.

Clinton is the overwhelming front-runner in the Democratic field, miles ahead of any likely challenger. But that’s not the only reason labor is likely to line up with her. The former secretary of state has also been mounting a charm offensive toward unions for months, starting when she met with Trumka during the summer of 2014, when she was still considering whether to run for president.

In the time since then, Clinton’s policy team has been in touch with the AFL-CIO’s team to vet policy ideas, and the campaign has contacted the policy director of every major union since Clinton launched her White House run earlier this month.

Trumka’s speech at the AFL-CIO’s headquarters, one block from the White House, didn’t mention any candidate by name. But it was delivered against the backdrop of a Democratic nomination fight where Clinton is the dominant figure, and where she has yet to take a strong stance on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that labor views as a force that will drive down wages. Trumka repeatedly pointed to growing inequality as a threat that presidential candidates would have to confront.

“The growing political power of the wealthiest among us has rewritten our labor laws, our trade laws, our tax laws, our monetary policies, our fiscal policies, our financial regulations,” he said, adding that the group would be convening summits to discuss those issues in the first four states that vote in presidential primary elections — starting with Iowa in May.

“We want earned sick leave. We want full employment and fair overtime rules. We want to tax Wall Street to pay for massive investments in infrastructure and education, so Wall Street serves Main street, not the other way around,” he said. “And we want to be able to bargain collectively with our employers for good wages and benefits without fear of retaliation.”

It’s a measure of their open lines of communication that Clinton’s knew about the speech weeks in advance. Even as unions wait to see where exactly Clinton stands on issues from trade to labor law reform, her campaign is showing signs of listening closely to her party’s restive liberal wing.

Shortly before Clinton announced her White House bid, her speechwriter Dan Schwerin and top policy staffer Ann O’Leary met with policy officials from AFL-CIO and about a dozen affiliate unions. After the launch, her public pronouncements have had a populist ring to them. Though under fire recently for charging upward of $200,000 for paid speeches before announcing her candidacy, Clinton has spoken of a deck stacked in favor of the wealthy and of the need to reshuffle the cards.

While she has not come out against the trade deal she called the “gold standard” just three years ago, Clinton has distanced herself from the arrangement, which is supported by President Barack Obama but reviled by labor unions and liberals — including former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who is likely to declare his own presidential candidacy next month.

Clinton has also recently spoken about the importance of collective bargaining rights — and she turned some Democratic heads by sitting with Lee Saunders, the head of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers at a panel shortly before announcing her much-anticipated campaign.

While Clinton has faced grumbling from progressives for not unveiling a fuller policy agenda from the start, a recent report by her allies at the liberal Center for American Progress was viewed as a signal that she may be open to more creative proposals — some of which she regularly brings up — that would appease labor. CAP’s “inclusive prosperity” report recommended more profit sharing for workers, the implementation of new workforce representation models like works councils, and a national paid family and medical leave insurance program, all music to the ears of organized labor.

Nonetheless, major labor groups — which split between Clinton and Obama in 2008 — have yet to endorse a presidential candidate. Trumka himself has not tipped his hand, though like many on the left he’s a fan of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, referring to her in 2014 as “the prototype of a person we would want to be president.”

But some labor leaders, including Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen, have gone so far as to urge Warren to jump into the race despite her repeated insistence that she will stay away.

Other prospective Democratic candidates aren’t blind to the opening. While waging battle against Obama’s TPP, union representatives have invoked the weak labor provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the landmark trade policy championed by Clinton and signed by her husband Bill. She has not yet taken a definitive stance on TPP, but Clinton may soon be forced to — Republicans in both the House and the Senate appear to have the votes to pass Trade Promotion Authority, which would fast-track the deal through Congress.

“The TPP is the latest example of a long-term approach to trade that, starting with NAFTA, was designed to drive wages down, create special rights for corporations and export jobs,” said Trumka on Tuesday. “The labor movement opposes Fast Track. We expect those who seek to lead our nation forward to oppose Fast Track.”

O’Malley has been aggressive about drawing a contrast on that issue, recently fundraising off his disapproval of the trade deal. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb have also spoken to labor audiences in recent weeks.

Trumka acknowledged those voices Tuesday and made a point to signal organized labor’s willingness to consider them.

“It is early, and although many candidates are already in the race, the field remains open,” he said. “And the labor movement’s doors are open to any candidate who is serious about transforming our economy with high and rising wages.”