Posts tagged Bernie Sanders
Summer of discontent: will US strikes spell trouble for ‘union guy’ Biden?
July 24, 2023 // On Thursday he was at the Philadelphia Shipyard in Pennsylvania to promote “Bidenomics”, a recently adopted slogan. The president said: “We have a plan that’s turning things around pretty quickly. ‘Bidenomics’ is just another way of saying ‘Restore the American Dream’.” But that message is still struggling to break through with voters. In a CNBC All-America Economic Survey released this week, 37% approve of Biden’s handling of the economy and 58% disapprove. In a Monmouth University poll, only three in 10 Americans feel the country is doing a better job recovering economically than the rest of the world since the pandemic. There is a baffling disconnect between these opinions and data that shows America defying predictions of recession and curbing price rises faster than other major economies. Inflation has fallen from 9% to 3% and is now at its lowest point in more than two years.
San Fran socialists killed historic Anchor Brewing, critics say
July 19, 2023 // But locals such as Greenberg told The Post that a cadre of Democratic Socialists of America drove the push to unionize Anchor’s modest 61-member workforce — in hopes of inspiring the masses to “take on the power of capital.” In 2020, the Anchor Union’s first contract kicked hourly pay up by as much as 28% — a substantial bump that exacerbated the company’s pandemic slump. “I’m very sympathetic to the workers, but there also has to be some reality,” Roth said. “And that’s the problem with socialism: in the real world, the economic and math tenets quite literally do not add up.”
OP-ED: BIDEN IS INVESTING IN GREEN ENERGY ACROSS THE SOUTH — THROWING SWING STATE UNION WORKERS UNDER THE BUS
July 12, 2023 // The success of the climate program will require continued federal commitment. Biden is placing a bet that clean energy investments could ultimately work the same way as the military-industrial complex. The military and its allied contractors have made sure to set up bases and/or manufacturing facilities in nearly every congressional district in the country, with extra attention paid to areas represented by key lawmakers. That has produced durable support for ever-expanding military budgets. Whether the same could be accomplished for the clean energy industry is an open question, but so far, Republicans from districts that have won federal awards have nevertheless voted to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, which funds the tax breaks. By subsidizing the decline of union jobs, the Biden administration risks empowering lawmakers who will then move to end the subsidies altogether. “The total lack of consideration for workers could certainly make the difference in 2024.” “What Biden is doing is politically insane, environmentally bankrupt, and it’s poor economics,” Larry Cohen, former president of the Communications Workers of America and board member of Our Revolution, told The Intercept.
Commentary: How Much Longer Will Democrats Support the PRO Act?
June 29, 2023 // When the act was introduced in 2019 and 2021, I voted against it both times. Members should not be fooled by the so-called pro-worker rhetoric that has accompanied the PRO Act. You can be pro-worker without hitching your wagon to a poisonous bill that advances an ideological attack on small business owners. So next time your sink backs up or your chimney needs sweeping, think of the PRO Act and those who are pushing it.
PRO Act Debate Dominates Senate HELP Markup
June 27, 2023 // “One piece of legislation under consideration today is the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. It is not pro-worker. The PRO Act is not pro-worker, it is just pro-big union. Being pro-worker means defending the rights of all workers, including those who decide they don’t want to join a union,” Ranking Member Senator Bill Cassidy said in his opening remarks. “It eliminates secret ballot elections for unionization, the gold standard to keep somebody from being put into a corner and intimidated until they vote the way the intimidator wishes them to vote. Secret ballot elections also protect workers from retaliation if they choose a different way.” Senate HELP Republicans offered amendments to the bill, but their recommendations were rejected by the Committee Chair and chief sponsor of the bill, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT). The bill passed out of committee and no date has been set for a full Senate vote. This markup comes in the wake of 33 Senate Republicans urging the Biden administration to withdraw Julie Su’s nomination to helm the Labor Department. Su would oversee the enforcement of the PRO Act and other labor policies if she is confirmed.
Senate Democrats offer resolution to let staff organize
June 26, 2023 // Sen. Sherrod Brown and 19 of his Senate colleagues introduced a resolution Thursday that would extend legal protections to staffers who unionize. The group of pro-labor Democrats, plus Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, comes a year after the House adopted a resolution allowing its employees to organize. “Every worker should have a right to organize and have a voice in their workplace — and that is why I have spent my career fighting for the dignity of work,” Brown said in a statement. “With this resolution, we can finally secure the fundamental legal right of U.S. Senate staff to join together as union members to advocate for themselves and have a voice on the job.”
In Union Votes, 11% Can Make a Majority
June 24, 2023 // Sen. Bill Cassidy raised the issue on June 21 in a Senate committee debate. He proposed an amendment to a labor-backed bill that would require a union to win support from a majority of eligible workers before representing a workplace—not just a majority of those who turn out to vote. (Fittingly, the committee debate lacked a quorum, so a vote on the amendment had to be postponed, under Senate rules.) Sen. Bernie Sanders led the opposition to the proposal. When only a handful of workers vote, it is more likely that the union doesn’t speak for the majority of workers, much less everyone. By contrast, when many workers vote for a union, there is a clearer signal that representation is popular. Once a union wins an election, it often maintains its grip on a workplace for generations. Future workers, who didn’t get a chance to vote for the union, can take comfort knowing that a large share of their predecessors wanted unionization.
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders hosts rally in Durham to raise minimum wage
June 2, 2023 // Sanders addressed the crowd of supporters virtually because of the debt ceiling vote. Right now, the minimum wage in North Carolina is $7.25. Sanders hopes to raise the minimum wage to $17 an hour. The rally to raise the wage tour will continue over the next couple of days and will make stops in Nashville, TN and Charleston, S.C.
One Small Union Is Stoking Much of the Militant New Graduate Worker Organizing
May 30, 2023 // With around 35,000 members, the UE is not a huge union. It was once the third-largest — and arguably the most left-wing and democratic — member of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, with around a half-million members in core industries, until it fell victim to postwar anti-communist purges, raids from other unions and plant shutdowns. But the union revived itself by the 1990s. Famously, UE workers at the Republic Windows & Doors factory in Chicago occupied their plant in 2008, and today the union boasts a range of affiliated locals across sectors and industries from California to Vermont.
Philadelphia: Helen Gym’s campaign resolves dispute with union over Bernie Sanders rally
May 15, 2023 // On Saturday morning, the regional carpenters’ union and the Service Employees International Union 32BJ released a joint statement “condemning” Gym for not moving the rally to a venue that has a unionized workforce. Both unions are backing Cherelle Parker for mayor. SEIU 32BJ’s involvement was notable because it often backs candidates from the left wing of the Democratic Party who are politically aligned with Gym and Sanders. ADVERTISEMENT A spokesperson for the carpenters said Saturday morning that the union was considering picketing. But the plans were scuttled once Barnes said IATSE was satisfied.