Hoping for November and reflecting on past failures

Bill Knight column for Thurs., Fri., or Sat., April 26, 27 or 28, 2018

The New Testament says suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope, and hope doesn’t disappoint (Romans 5). And, despite suffering from declining union membership, Republican majorities in some state capitals willing to consider anti-worker bills, and a U.S. Supreme Court that seems bent on ruling against unions, labor seems hopeful, and progress would stem from Democratic victories in November.

Indeed, even moderate Democrats push “A Better Deal (for American Workers),” which facilitates first contracts, strengthens the right to strike, prohibits employers using “permanent replacements,” and bans Right To Work laws. Meanwhile, the AFL-CIO is behind the WAGE Act (for “Workplace Action for a Growing Economy”), which would make it easier for workers to organize and for government to punish employers who break the law.

However, as appealing as such measures are, nothing’s feasible without November victories, and a turnaround requires not just looking ahead but looking back.

Forty years ago, U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) – who this winter announced his retirement – filibustered an attempt to reform labor law for the first time in decades. There had been union optimism, if a lack of energy and enthusiasm by the Democratic Party – which then controlled both houses of Congress and the White House, with President Jimmy Carter.

“We didn’t try for revolutionary things,” said Ray Marshall, Carter’s Secretary of Labor. “We pushed for things we thought we could get broad support for.”

The lackluster effort failed.

Fast-forward to 2009, when new President Barack Obama also had Democratic majorities. Suddenly, “Keep hope alive” seemed more than a slogan, and labor dusted off the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which had passed the House in 2003 only to die by another GOP filibuster in the Senate. This time, Democrats supposedly had a “filibuster-proof” Senate majority, and confidence emerged.

That was naive.

“We didn’t have all the Dems, even though we were closer than we had been,” said Sharon Block, senior labor counsel for Sen. Ted Kennedy, speaking to Rachel Cohen of The Intercept.

Today, some observers blame overconfidence; others blamed conservative “Blue Dog” Democrats; still others “corporate Democrats” left over from Bill Clinton’s years – who remain a force in the party.

Commenting after a recent summit hosted by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Communications Workers of America president Chris Shelton said there’s a keen difference between Wall Street Democrats and “poor people, working people, people of color, young people, woman, LGBT people [and] immigrants” that have become the core, if not the heart, of the Democratic Party.

“The GOP understands how important labor unions are to the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party, historically, has not,” wrote Eric Levitz in New York magazine. “With its financial contributions and grassroots organizing, the labor movement helped give Democrats full control of the federal government three times in the last four decades, and all three of those times — under Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama –

Democrats failed to pass labor law reforms that would bolster the union cause.”

Bradley University political science professor Ed Burmila in Rolling Stone magazine said, “Democrats have developed a habit over the last four decades of trying to get their voting base fired up during elections without delivering a whole lot once in power. They think Americans – and liberals in particular – want to see bipartisanship -- lots of hand-holding and playing nice. By the time they wake up from that fantasy, it may be too late.”

If Democratic Party leaders don’t address past failures and show how 2018 and beyond will be different, that could be disastrous for working Americans and the future – and for the Democratic Party.

Levitz, in New York magazine, added, “In hindsight, it’s clear that the Democratic Party didn’t merely betray organized labor with these [EFCA] failures, but also itself.”

Hopefully that’s clear.

At last.