Unions refuse to endorse Murray, 3 Democratic House members

BY JOEL CONNELLY, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF 

May 21, 2016

The Washington State Labor Council, angry at a pending trade agreement, has denied its endorsement to Sen. Patty Murray and Democratic U.S. Reps. Suzan DelBene, Derek Kilmer and Rick Larsen.

The four federal officeholders, all up for re-election this year, are being punished for their votes last year in favor of giving President Obama "fast track" authority to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership.  The TPP is a 12-nation trade agreement fervently opposed by labor unions.

The TPP has unexpectedly become an issue in the 2016 election. 

Ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton unexpectedly came out against it.  Sen. Bernie Sanders has railed against trade deals that boost corporations, although leaving out his denunciations of the U.S. Export-Import Bank in speeches here. Donald Trump bloviates in general about the U.S. getting the short end on trade agreements.

Sen. Murray spoke to the labor council COPE (Committee on Political Education) convention.  A panel of House members was asked "yes" or "no" on the TPP.  Only Rep. Adam Smith raised the red "no" card.

Sen. Murray has "an outstanding record" on such issues as advocating for working families and strengthening collective bargaining rights, state Labor Council President Jeff Johnson said in a statement.

"The fact that rank and file delegates from across the state chose to make no recommendation in these races today, despite some of these candidates' excellent records on other working family issues, demonstrates how strongly the labor movement feels about improving U.S. trade policies," Johnson said.

The Labor Council did endorse Smith and U.S. Rep. Denny Heck, D-Wash., who voted against fast track trade authority.

It also backed state Sen. Pramila Jayapal, D-Seattle, in the contest to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash.

And it gave support to state Rep. Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver, a potentially strong challenger to U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., who has missed more than 500 roll call votes during her five years in Congress.

Individual unions have and will give support to Murray and the three House members. Still, the action Saturday is bound to sting.

On election day in 2010, wearing jeans, a hoodie and her trademark tennis shoes, Sen. Murray made an early morning stop at the Everett Labor Temple, where volunteers were already leaving with literature and call lists.

The Democrats' final get-out-the-vote drive, with labor playing a key role, helped propel Murray and Larsen to narrow victories. It countered a last-minute dump of $997,000 by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in support of Republican Senate candidate Dino Rossi.

Washington is the most trade-dependent state in the nation.  An estimated 25 percent of the state's jobs are tied to its export economy.

In 1994, only a single Washington House member -- U.S. Rep. Jolene Unsoeld -- voted against the North American Free Trade Agreement. 

Defenders of the Trans-Pacific Partnership say it will boost Washington's agricultural exports, and bring labor and environmental standards to countries like Vietnam that have none. 

U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez, a major progressive voice in the Obama cabinet, has argued that the TPP will be a vehicle to shut down company-sponsored unions and bring genuine collective bargaining to factories in Mexico.

But the unions are mad.

"Because Washington is a trade-dependent state, our elected officials here often willfully ignore the clear connection between decades of globalization under these bad trade deals, the growing crisis of climate change, and an out-of-balance U.S. economy that has decimated the middle class," said Johnson.

"And today, Washington's working people sent a clear message to our congressional delegation that this issue is too important for them to ignore."