The New York Times took a look at labor’s increasing skepticism of the leadership of the Democratic Party. Some choice quotes:
“Every time we talk politics, the first thing that comes up is, ‘The Democrats let us down,’” said Jimmy Williams, the president of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades. His 140,000 members, he said, had split nearly evenly between Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump…
But conflict has been building in recent years, with [Las Vegas’ Culinary Union Local 226] especially angry that Democrats in the State Legislature helped end mandatory daily hotel room cleanings, a Covid-era safety measure, in 2023. Last year, the union withdrew its endorsement from more than a dozen Democratic candidates over their room cleaning votes, drawing a red line through their names on an endorsement guide.
And it ran two candidates in Democratic legislative primaries, a nurse who lost her bid to oust an incumbent Democrat and a food server and union member who defeated a candidate backed by party leaders.
Even as the union campaigned for Ms. Harris last fall, Ted Pappageorge, the union’s secretary-treasurer, repeatedly warned Democrats that they were not focusing enough on affordability and were poised to lose Nevada. In an interview, he suggested the party had not received the message.
“The No. 1 issue was the economy, and nationally, Democrats were tone-deaf about that,” Mr. Pappageorge said, adding, “If the candidates are all lawyers and developers and managers, then maybe that’s part of the problem.”
He cautioned that if Democrats did not promote more candidates who understand kitchen-table issues, the union would consider backing independents, Republicans or its own members.”
News and Views
Following on the footsteps of the VA, the EPA has terminated federal union contracts as of Friday.
The IDF killed 5 Al Jazeera journalists Sunday. Here’s the statement from International Federation of Journalists General Secretary Anthony Ballanger: “After a smear campaign against Gaza's journalists, Israel has killed five Al Jazeera staff in a tent housing journalists. The deliberate targeting of journalists is a war crime and Israeli leaders must be held accountable for their heinous actions. We condemn in the strongest possible terms this deliberate killing of our colleagues and we stand in solidarity with all staff at Al Jazeera and our colleagues working in Gaza under such unacceptable circumstances.”
The Teamsters under O’Brien have substantially increased their donations to Republicans.
The Histadrut, the Israeli labor federation, won’t be listening to the calls of families of hostages to call for a general strike for a hostage deal. Backstory: the Histadrut barred Arab membership until 1953.
Truthout looks at NEA leadership backtracking on the resolution passed by the union’s Representational Assembly criticizing the Anti-Defamation League.
The Guardian looks at the decline of tourism in Las Vegas, negatively impacting the state of the city’s unions.
Hamilton Nolan takes a pass at the current state of things in our movement. Key quote: “ If unions are, as I believe, the single best path towards defeating oligarchy and inequality, we must be honest in saying that that goal is currently receding farther and farther from view.”
Amid drastic cuts to OSHA, there was an explosion at a US Steel plant outside of Pittsburgh.
Today’s Win
Library workers in Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties vote to ratify their first contracts.