Trumka: "Show us the [Damn] Treaty"
AFAIK, Richard Trumka did not actually use the 'D' work like Bernie Sanders did during the Dem 'Debate', but he has apparently thrown up his hands and called for the latest draft Obama trade treaty to be released.
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/256963-trumka-calls-for-immediate-rele...
Trumka calls for immediate release of TPP text
by Vicki Needham - 10/14/15 05:19 PM EDT
One of the nation’s top labor leaders on Wednesday called on the Obama administration to immediately release the text of a far-reaching trade deal that spans the Pacific Rim to Latin America.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka wrote a letter to President Obama arguing that stakeholders, lawmakers and the American public need to see the final text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to start what is expected to be a long process of evaluating the deal brokered by the United States and 11 other nations.
House and Senate Democrats have made similar appeals since the pact was brokered a week ago during a final round of negotiations in Atlanta.
Trumka said now that the talks are concluded he sees no reason to delay the public release of the TPP text after years of waiting for full access to the agreement's details.
"In my experience, when there is such good news to share, there is no need for secrecy," Trumka wrote. "If TPP will do for the American middle class all that USTR claims, releasing the text would be the single best way to prove that."
Heh. Such 'good news....'
Comments
thanks for the story do...
i am certain that no matter how much trumka squawks, obama is not going to release the details of his "classified" trade deal until the last possible moment to provide the absolute minimum notice to the public required.
What burns me about Trumka and many other labor leaders
is how they squawk after the fact, but continue to support corrupt politicians. It is not like Trumka fell off the turnip truck and now it looks he is trying to get Hillary Clinton to say the right things when he has to know that she is no friend of labor. Labor and blacks have been the single greatest supporters of the Democratic party and yet establishment Democrats continue to treat them like red headed step children. So my sad opinion is that even if Trumka is squawking about the TPP now, unfortunately, he will fall in line. That horse left the barn a long time ago.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
That's right gg
Trumka really sold out workers during the financial meltdown, health insurance reform and the reboot GM debacle. I recall him blustering, threatening a bit and then caving. Then he started with the sacrifices needed. I don't think when the big union leaders endorse the anti-labor 'transnational' corrupt candidates the rank and file gets to vote. The Teachers Union members were not at all happy with the Clinton endorsement. I also agree about the greatest supporters of the Democrat's, including the poor, poc, women and even liberals or as they call them these days 'far lefties', getting screwed by austerity anti-worker policies and their global anti-democratic agenda. I am proud of the nurses union for making their leadership reflect the rank and files preference. The overt Clinton bias by the Teachers Union leadership was insulting to all teacher's who are under siege by the likes of Rahm and Arnie. Public is a dirty word to the Clintonites. About those raising boats. Hillary doesn't even feel your pain. She just 'hands you a nickel hands you a dime and asks you with a grin if your having a good time'.
When I was a graphic artist working at Macy's in the 80's the sales people went on strike. Their was a Democratic Convention going on in San Fransisco and the delegates gleefully crossed the picket lines on Union square to shop till they dropped. In the advertising dept. the only union workers were the typesetters. As the strike went on the artist's, photographers etc. began to refuse to cross the line in front of the building. It scared management and they resolved the growing revolt be making all of us Junior Executives. We stopped being paid a good hourly wage as we were salaried and no longer eligible for overtime which was considerable. I could not get over all those Democratic delegates crossing the retail workers picket line and coming out of Macy's overloaded with shopping bags.
Ditto! At the national level, unions have mostly been
hollowed out. For decades the leaders of the major national unions have sold out the rank-and-file by forming an unholy alliance with the corporatist Dems, in exchange for cushy seven-figure positions in mostly posh union headquarters, and the privilege of having a so-called 'seat at the table.' (which mostly benefits the leaders, not the rank-and-file unionists)
Guess they do it for the 'perks'--like Trumpka hugging and kissing his longtime friend and associate, former Senator Alan Simpson. (ugh!)
Regarding the AFT, I've seen the President of that union, Randi Weingarten, on C-Span a bunch of times. She's a longtime Clinton protege. Here's her Wikipedia entry.
At this point, their best bet 'might be' to fold into an existing third party (Greens, etc.), OR, better yet, establish/form a third party of their own--attempting to bring in and build coalitions with other liberal organizations, groups, etc.
Obviously, this would only be effective if they find union leadership that's not corrupt.
At the rate that they are losing members, I fear that--if they don't act within the next decade or so--they literally risk becoming extinct.
Mollie
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."--Helen Keller
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.