Unions Split as Bitter U.S. Campaign Exposes Divergent Agendas

By Tim Jones & Mark Niquette

May 24, 2016

Before the holidays last year, three unions representing 6.6 million active or retired service workers and public employees endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton for president. The AFL-CIO and its trade workers, representing 12.5 million people, are in no such hurry.

The split amid an unexpectedly contentious Democratic primary season has exposed contrasting agendas in organized labor. Trade unionists are exercised by international deals, which they blame for the loss of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs. Service workers less affected by globalization advocate collective-bargaining rights and wage protection.

Even as leaders vow that organized labor will be united behind the Democratic candidate, the appeal of the presumptive Republican nominee, real-estate developer and television personality Donald Trump, could peel away rank-and-file votes in the fall.

"A lot of people are just fed up with establishment politics," said Chuck Jones, president of United Steelworkers Union Local 1999, which represents 1,400 Indianapolis workers about to lose their jobs because Carrier Corp. is moving operations to Mexico. Jones’s local endorsed Democrat Bernie Sanders, whose anti-free trade stance has won the support of many rank and file workers.

The election is more than five months away and Democrats say there’s plenty of time to heal wounds and unite. They say unions such as the AFL-CIO often sit on the sidelines until the Democratic nominee is selected. (The giant labor federation has endorsed only twice before the party’s nominee was clear, in 1984 and 2000.)

Trump is a wild card. The Republican, like Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, could make inroads among traditional Democratic voters unhappy with the uneven and sluggish pace of the economic recovery. He has made Carrier’s decision a frequent object of derision and has often talked about winning states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which haven’t delivered their electoral votes to a Republican since the 1980s.

"This is a time when a Donald Trump can emerge," said Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois.

The disarray for organized labor follows a long decline. Membership peaked in the mid-1950s, at about one-third of the U.S. work force. In 2015, the percentage was 11.1 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

While the movement was born in steel mills, auto assembly lines and coal mines, much of the modern rank-and-file is found in classrooms, state and local office buildings and prisons. Public sector and service-union membership outnumbers that of trade unions by 5-to-1. And the gap is getting wider.

"Manufacturing workers are very sensitive to trade issues, while service workers and teachers are focused on austerity budgets and government spending," Bruno said. "It’s playing out in a more dramatic way because there’s never been a Republican candidate who was so anti-trade. This certainly raises the profile of the disagreements."

Although Clinton entered the race last year as the strong favorite, Sanders’s populist campaign tapped anger over Wall Street, income inequality and blue-collar job losses. The Vermont senator’s path to the nomination is almost impossible, yet an average of recent polls have him defeating Trump by 11 points, while Clinton is effectively tied with Trump, according to RealClearPolitics.

Nafta’s Hangover

The dynamic is complicated by Clinton’s record in support of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which her then-president husband championed more than two decades ago. Sanders calls trade pacts "disastrous" while Trump pledges to renegotiate or scuttle Nafta. Some workers have taken note.

Geno DiFabio, 53, a truck driver and a former member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union, said he was a Democrat since he started voting at 18. Then, he took a Republican ballot in Ohio’s March 15 primary to vote for Trump.

DiFabio, who is from the hollowed-out steel center of Youngstown, said he has been increasingly turned off by the positions that Clinton and other Democrats have taken on immigration, gun rights and abortion.

"There’s enough to dislike about her to say, ‘Well, let’s give Trump a try,”’ DiFabio said.

The labor vote isn’t monolithic. President Obama won 58 percent of union households in 2012, while Republican Mitt Romney took 40 percent, according to the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

In Pennsylvania, about 28 percent of the 800,000 AFL-CIO members are Republicans, and while those members may back Trump, it’s unlikely he will woo many others, said Rick Bloomingdale, the organization’s president in that state.

“He wasn’t against bad trade deals until he started running for president,” Bloomingdale said. “The voters are not stupid.”

Even if Trump appeals to some white union men, that will be offset or even overcome by the number of union women, blacks and Latinos against him, said Steve Rosenthal, a Democratic consultant in Washington who was political director at the AFL-CIO from 1995 to 2002.

“I’m in the school that when the votes are counted, he’s just going to be another Republican presidential candidate,” Rosenthal said.

In any event, the influence of union endorsements is limited, said Chuck Deppert, former president of the Indiana State AFL-CIO.

"The leadership is a lot closer to the Democratic Party than the average union worker is," said Deppert, who led the organization from 1989 to 1997. "They elected Obama and expected great things, but the average guy in the factory doesn’t see much difference. The jobs are still slipping away."

FCA indefinitely laying off 1,420 Detroit-area workers

Michael Wayland, The Detroit News

April 7, 2016

Changing consumer preference from cars to SUVs and trucks is largely to blame for a shift being cut at the Sterling Heights Assembly plant.

About 1,420 production workers face indefinite layoffs at the facility and a supporting stamping plant that build the Chrysler 200 mid-size sedan.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV informed the United Auto Workers as well as city and state officials of the layoffs Wednesday afternoon. The indefinite layoffs will begin July 5. About 1,900 employees will remain working on one shift at the assembly plant.

The decision comes after months of temporary layoffs due to a lack of demand for Chrysler’s midsize sedan, the facility’s only vehicle. In a crowded market segment with declining demand, the lackluster Chrysler 200 never caught on and will be discontinued. Fiat Chrysler said the shift cut is “to better align production with demand.”

Production of the Chrysler 200 at Sterling Heights Assembly stopped on Feb. 1 and the plant’s 3,000-plus employees were placed on temporary layoffs. Production was scheduled to resume at the 5-million-square-foot assembly plant this week, but a company spokeswoman on Wednesday said that was pushed back to next week.

Indefinitely laid-off employees, including 120 at Sterling Stamping, will be placed in open full-time positions in other plants “as they become available within the Detroit labor market based on seniority,” the company said.

The layoffs are “a direct result of shifting demand toward trucks and SUVs,” Fiat Chrysler said in a statement.

“Our truck and SUV plants are running six days a week about 20 hours a day,” the company said. “And while 1,300 people will be impacted by layoffs (at Sterling Heights Assembly), we have been able to add 11,000 hourly jobs in Michigan since 2009 to keep up with that demand.”

UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell, who heads the union’s Fiat Chrysler department, said while the shift cut is “unfortunate, it is not unexpected.”

“FCA is not the only company experiencing a slow market for small cars,” he said in a statement. “On a bright note, there is a strong demand for larger-sized vehicles. The company has been planning to increase its capacity to build more trucks and SUVs.”

“I believe that in the long term this move will be a positive one for our members and the company.”

Union employees under the UAW’s contract with the automaker are paid on average about 95 percent of their after-tax pay while laid off, including state unemployment benefits. That ends up being 70-75 percent of their gross pay, according to Art Schwartz, a former longtime negotiator with General Motors Co. and president of the Labor and Economics Associates consultancy firm.

A spokesman for the UAW was unable to immediately provide additional details on pay and benefits for the laid-off employees.

The contract also states that employees placed on indefinite layoff can be offered out-of-market jobs (greater than 50 miles). If they accept, they will receive up to $50,000 as a relocation allowance, $10,000 of which will be provided “as a signing bonus to cover miscellaneous up-front cash expenditures.”

If they decline, the employee is placed on “inactive status” with no company-provided income or benefits but remain “eligible for additional job opportunities,” according to the contract.

Neither UAW Local 1700 President Charles Bell or UAW Local 1268 President LaShawn English, both of whom represent production workers at the two Sterling Heights facilities, immediately responded for comment.

The layoffs come 10 weeks after Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne outlined a business plan that included ceasing production of the Chrysler 200 and the Dodge Dart compact sedan to free up space in U.S. plants for hot-selling, more profitable Ram pickups and Jeep SUVs.

Chrysler 200 sales through the first three months of the year in the United States were down 63.4 percent compared to the same time period in 2014. Fewer than 18,000 cars sold.

Karl Brauer, Kelley Blue Book senior analyst, said the Chrysler 200 — which was completely redesigned in 2014 — is outclassed: “A couple years ago it likely could have chipped away the segment leaders’ market share. In 2016, there are simply too many other compelling options, both within and outside the midsize sedan segment, for a car like the 200 to grow or even maintain its volume.”

Sales of the Dodge Dart also have been problematic: It’s taken a 32.8 percent dive so far this year. However, the 4,000-plus workers at Belvidere Assembly in Illinois have not been been as negatively affected because that plant also produces the Jeep Patriot and outgoing Jeep Compass. Sales of those sport utilities are up 42.8 percent and down 3.2 percent this year, respectively.

Marchionne said the plan to cease production of the cars was due to a “permanent shift” in consumer preference from cars to crossovers and sport utility vehicles. The company plans to use freed-up plant capacity to build more hot-selling Ram Truck pickups and Jeeps.

Last year marked the fifth time in six years that light-duty trucks, including some SUVs and crossovers, outsold cars. Trucks accounted for 55.7 percent, or 9.7 million, of vehicles sold last year, up more than 1.1 million from 2014. That’s the segment’s highest percentage since 2004, according to Autodata Corp.

Marchionne said the company was continuing discussions with potential partners that could “provide a product from their facilities” to allow the company to cover gaps in the lineup left by the Dart and 200.

Prior to Marchionne’s comments on ceasing production, there were media reports during contract discussions with the UAW last year that the company planned to move production of the 200 and Dart to Mexico. But the company never confirmed those plans.

Moving the production to Mexico wouldn’t have been unprecedented. Several automakers, including crosstown rival Ford Motor Co., have announced significant investments in Mexico. Ford on Tuesday confirmed plans to build a $1.6 billion assembly plant in Mexico for small-car production.

The Sterling Heights shift cut is the latest twist for workers at the plant. The plant was scheduled to be shuttered during Chrysler’s 2009 bankruptcy. The reborn company eventually changed its plans and invested more than $1 billion to renovate the facility, including new paint and body shops, for production of the 200.

mwayland@detroitnews.com

(313) 222-2504

Headline

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV on Wednesday announced a $500 million investment in Argentina for production of a new vehicle for the Latin American market.

The plant is scheduled to launch production in the second half of 2017 and will produce more than 100,000 vehicles a year, according to the automaker.

“This plant will operate using the most advanced technologies available to FCA today,” said FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne in a statement. “This choice demonstrates a major strategic change, giving the Córdoba plant a central role in FCA’s industrial activities in Latin America.”

The investment, Fiat Chrysler says, includes retooling the facility, installation of more than 150 robots in the body shop, supplier development, training and research and development. The company did not say what vehicle will be built at the plant.

mwayland@detroitnews.com

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1- Blue collar got laid off - why no white collar laid off?

2- Why they ship jobs to Argentina - thanks to Clinton Nafta.

U.S. labor powerhouse to launch anti-Trump ad campaign

AMANDA BECKER

3/11/2016

The AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. federation of labor unions, will launch digital attack ads targeting Republican front-runner Donald Trump next week as part of a multi-pronged effort to derail the New York billionaire’s bid for the White House and dampen union workers' enthusiasm for him. 

Officials at the AFL-CIO, an umbrella group of 56 unions representing 12.5 million workers, told Reuters the ads will depict Trump as anti-union, and will appear on Facebook and Twitter.

The officials said the anti-Trump advertising effort would likely expand over the coming months. At the same time, an AFL-CIO affiliate organization will ramp up a door-to-door campaign to undermine the candidate in Ohio and Pennsylvania, key battleground states in the Nov. 8 presidential election.

"Donald Trump has tapped into the very real and understandable anger of working people. But while he says he's with America's working people, when you look close, it's just hot air," AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka told Reuters. "Donald Trump is nothing but a house of cards, and once we educate people, the house of cards comes crashing down," he said.

Union leaders are increasingly concerned about Trump’s appeal to labor, typically a stronghold of the Democratic Party, because of his promises to scrap free trade deals that have led to manufacturing job losses in the United States.

The AFL-CIO is entering the political fray several months earlier than in past elections, given the "unique cycle" created by Trump's candidacy, spokesman Josh Goldstein said.

The initial ads will be modeled after a text message blast that began Thursday featuring an image of Trump with a statement he made supporting "right-to-work" laws, which weaken organized labor by limiting their ability to collect membership dues. Several states have passed such laws, and the U.S. Congress has considered a similar measure.

"I like right to work. My position on right to work is 100 percent," Trump said in a radio interview in South Carolina last month.

The text campaign on which the ads will be modeled featured a quote from Trumka, hitting Trump on right-to-work, and characterizing him as racist: "Donald Trump's bigoted comments are bad enough. Now, he supports right to work. Tell him right to work is wrong for working people."

Trump has been widely criticized for describing Mexican illegal immigrants as rapists and criminals, and for proposing a temporary ban on Muslims seeking to come to the United States.

The AFL-CIO declined to say how much the initial digital ads would cost, but the federation spent nearly $9 million in the 2012 election cycle on outside spending in addition to money given directly to candidates, according to Open Secrets data. 

The AFL-CIO typically waits to endorse a presidential candidate until there is a de facto Democratic nominee. But Trumka, a former coal miner and leader of that union, has made clear he believes Trump in particular would be a disastrous candidate for workers. In a speech last week he called him a "bigot" and "anti-American."

An official representing Trump's campaign was not immediately available to comment, but Trump has said repeatedly that he has support within unions.

   

"UP FOR GRABS"

National unions nearly always endorse Democratic presidential candidates but Trump has built his insurgent campaign in part on a mission that many unions share: scrapping international trade deals.

There are some signs Trump's message is resonating beyond the 20 to 30 percent of rank-and-file union members that vote Republican, attracting political independents and even some frustrated Democrats.

At a recent picket outside a steel plant near Canton, Ohio, workers cited former President Bill Clinton's support of the North American Free Trade Agreement more than 20 years ago as a reason why they may support Trump over Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in a general election.

"For a lot of us, it's ABC - Anybody But Clinton," Mike Newbold told Reuters.

Clinton has said she evaluates every trade deal to make sure it protects workers and that she opposes one being finalized by the Obama administration. Her campaign said they are confident her plan to help struggling manufacturing areas will earn her support from union members.

AFL-CIO's affiliate, Working America, has noticed Trump's inroads with working-class Americans, and recently sent canvassers to talk to 1,689 likely voters with household incomes of $75,000 or less in Cleveland, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to learn more about Trump's appeal.

"Working-class voters are up for grabs this time in a really significant way. These folks need good information, and we'll fill that gap," said Karen Nussbaum, executive director of Working America.   

According to Nussbaum, workers said they were frustrated with politics and worried about the economy. Of those who had already settled on a candidate, 38 percent chose Trump. But more than half were still undecided.

She said the results of that initial canvas would be used to guide a massive door-to-door campaign to have more than half a million one-on-one conversations with Ohio voters during 2016, to help them "make decisions that actually solve their problems as opposed to phony solutions."

Working America is adding staff to its offices in Columbus and Cleveland to support the operation, and will open another soon in Cincinnati, she said.

Labor strategist Steve Rosenthal said that in every presidential election there is a sense that white, working-class union men could desert the Democratic Party.

"But I think when all is said and done, when unions put their programs into gear, in person and one-on-one in homes and in their communities, union members will vote overwhelmingly for the Democratic nominee," Rosenthal said.

"Trump might have some appeal right now, but once you start to peel away his record - his manufacturing in China, his relationships with unions - he's a pretty good target."

==============================================

This is a teachable moment: why unions lose clout and respect among its own members.

Imagine union as an army - instead of shoring up its own lines, strengthening its own members.

Union bosses will waste members’ dues in this endeavor. Two questions to Richard Trumka and other union bosses:

A) What will union members gain from this wasteful campaign? 

B) Whether those trade deals which shipped jobs overseas will be scrapped?

Autoworkers At Crossroads Between Sanders And Clinton

by Jimmie Castillo 

08/02/2016 

While that explanation settled the issue of the Nashua Telegraph, Politifact noted that Sanders failed to account for a more explicit mistake in which the words "endorsed by" were displayed beside the logo of the Valley News, a paper which has not endorsed any candidate. Bernie Sanders debated in a one-on-one face off since former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley suspended his campaign on Monday. 

Sen. The Sanders campaign has been conducting its own investigation into the results, and some examples of apparent misgivings from the Clinton campaign have already surfaced. And we are going to defeat Hillary Clinton, because she is unqualified to be the president of the United States of America. 

But her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination is also setting up shop in town this weekend. I love it because interactions you have with voters in any setting is so rewarding, and voters in this state take a first, second, third, fourth look at you. 

She added that "I held my nose" and voted for the bankruptcy bill that never became law in any case. Her aides worry that a big Sanders victory in the state could help him make headway among women and minority voters, important parts of the coalition that twice elected Barack Obama as president. 

Sanders headed to New York City for a cameo appearance on NBC's "Saturday Night Live", appearing with comedian Larry David, who has portrayed Sanders as an impassioned underdog shouting for revolution. Sanders is offering Democrats what they have been longing for in their hearts. Debbie Stabenow, a clear dig at Sanders call for a "political revolution". Another poll this week from Public Policy Polling showed that Clinton still lead the race with support of 53 percent of voters to Sanders' 32 percent. "People voting, particularly in a Democratic primary and I would hope even voting in the Republican primary, care about the disgrace of what's happened". In comparison, Clinton has nearly total name recognition among voters.

"There are going to have to be security reviews of a lot of other people - including Republican office holders", she said. 

Clinton's favorable rating increased to 75 percent since Iowa and she also regained some of her aura of inevitability, with 61 percent saying she'll be the nominee while just 27 percent picking Sanders - a 13 point margin increase since last weekend. Thirty-one percent said they had a "strong preference" but were open to changing their minds. 

"But, let's ask Senator Sanders's campaign: Why did he vote to deregulate swaps and derivatives, one of the key reasons for Lehman Brothers being overleveraged, collapsing and bringing down the economy?" she said.

"I think we are the underdog now", Sanders said. On that day there will be nine primaries in states collectively more representative of the national electorate than Iowa or New Hampshire. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh was dispatching dozens of organizers to the state while a number of veterans of past Clinton campaigns, including many from Arkansas, were knocking on doors and staffing phone banks this weekend. 

Clinton secures major labor endorsements from building trades

WASHINGTON | BY AMANDA BECKER

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at an election campaign event in Orlando, Florida December 2, 2015. 

REUTERS/SCOTT AUDETTE

The labor organization representing the U.S. building trades on Thursday endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, giving her the backing of national labor groups that represent more than 11 million workers.

North America's Building Trades President Sean McGarvey praised a $275 billion infrastructure plan Clinton announced this week as "robust, yet entirely practical."

The building trades group is an alliance of 14 unions that represent 3 million skilled craft professionals. One of its member unions, the International Heat and Frost Insulators, endorsed Clinton this week.

Insulators President James McCourt, in a letter to Clinton seen by Reuters, praised her "recognition of the significant contributions of our members to energy efficiency."

Clinton said in a statement to Reuters: "I am honored to receive the endorsement of the Insulators Union, whose leadership in energy efficiency is essential to making America a clean energy superpower."

She now has the backing of 16 individual unions, along with the building trades alliance, that collectively represent more than 11 million workers. Roughly 14.6 million workers - about 11.1 percent of the workforce - are union members, according to U.S. government data.

Some of Clinton's endorsements include influential unions such as the AFSCME, a public employees union with 1.6 million members, and the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, which has about 2 million members in a variety of professions that range from nursing to janitorial services.

The building trades group and the 30,000-member insulators union are both affiliated with the AFL-CIO, a federation of 56 labor unions that collectively represent more than 12 million workers.

The AFL-CIO has not yet endorsed a candidate and has not traditionally done so in recent presidential elections until the party-nominating contests are nearly decided.

Endorsements by national unions do not prevent their rank-and-file members from supporting a different candidate, such as Clinton's chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

But the fact that Clinton has secured such a large portion of organized labor's support ahead of the first nominating contests in February shows the momentum she is gaining ahead of the general election in November 2016, when union workers are traditionally important on-the-ground foot soldiers for Democratic candidates.

Clinton's emphasis this month on jobs, and infrastructure in particular, is a move to woo working-class voters, who will be critical to winning the general election.

(Reporting By Amanda Becker; Editing by Paul Tait and Dan Grebler)

Powerful labor union SEIU backs Hillary Clinton for president

SEIU represents nearly 2 million workers and is the main backer of nationwide protests for $15 minimum wage

November 17, 2015 1:00PM ET

Hillary Rodham Clinton won the endorsement of the Service Employees International Union on Tuesday, giving her the support of a labor powerhouse that backed President Barack Obama in 2008.

The nation's largest health care and service sector union represents about 2 million nurses, health care workers, maintenance workers, security guards, and other service providers. It is among the most ethnically diverse unions in the country. The decision is a blow to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose supporters had pushed against an endorsement.

“Hillary Clinton has proven she will fight, deliver and win for working families,” SEIU president Mary Kay Henry said in a statement. “SEIU members and working families across America are part of a growing movement to build a better future for their families, and Hillary Clinton will support and stand with them.”

The endorsement represents another show of strength for Clinton, who has locked up most of the major unionsdespite Sanders' message of helping workers overcome income inequality.

SEIU endorsed Obama over Clinton in early 2008, giving the future president a boost in the lengthy Democratic primary battle. Union officials said Clinton received a strong majority in the vote of its leadership, and a recent poll of its membership found that about 70 percent back Clinton.

The union is the main backer of the Fight for $15 protests by fast food workers and other low-wage service employees, who are demanding a $15 hourly wage and union recognition. The fast food workers held the latest in a series of nationwide strikes last week, and Clinton expressed her support for the protesters on Twitter.

Clinton has endorsed raising the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour, a level below the $15 an hour that Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley have sought.

But the union says its support was about building a movement for higher wages. Henry told Al Jazeera last week that $15 and a union was “an aspirational demand,” not a litmus test for candidates. “What we're expecting is candidates up and down the ticket who are willing to get in the streets and champion this demand,” Henry said.

Labor for Bernie, a group of unionists who back Sanders, sent out an email to its SEIU members last Friday calling on them to request that its union withhold the nomination. The email cited Clinton's refusal to support a $15 federal minimum wage.

“It is hard to ask workers to strike for $15 an hour in one breath when we are opposing the candidate (Sen. Sanders) who proposed national legislation for $15 an hour, in order to support a candidate who rejects our demand,” said Labor for Bernie.

The union could be an asset to Clinton in the general election because it has a large presence in several battleground states, including Florida and Colorado. Half of its members are women, and about 40 percent are minorities, with many speaking languages such as Spanish, Chinese and Creole.