Frustrated with Democrats, Unions Cut Financial Support
By T.W. Farnam
The Washington Post
May 21, 2011

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/frustrated-with-democrats-some-large-unions-cut-back-on-donations/2011/0516/AF0Hmh8G_story.html

Some of the nation's largest labor unions are cutting
back dramatically on their financial support to the
Democratic Party, saying they are highly frustrated
with the failure of Democrats to put up stronger
resistance to Republican proposals opposed by labor.

The unions have cited what they see as Democrats' tepid
response to Republican efforts to eliminate collective
bargaining rights for public sector workers, cut
Medicare funding and require voters to show
identification at the polls.

"It doesn't matter if candidates and parties are
controlling the wrecking ball or simply standing
aside," said Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO,
in a speech Friday. "The outcome is the same either
way. If leaders aren't blocking the wrecking ball and
advancing working families' interests, working people
will not support them."

The determination of the unions, who have traditionally
been among the largest campaign donors, to use money as
a carrot and stick over policy matters could ultimately
play a significant role in next year's elections,
seriously harming some Democrats' chances of election.

"We never take anyone's support for granted," said
Democratic Party spokesman Hari Sevugan. "And we are
confident that when working men and women face a choice
between a party .?.?. that wants to end the right to
collectively bargain versus one that secured universal
health care, expanded middle-class tax cuts and saved
the American auto industry, we'll be working with
organized labor to again elect Democrats up and down
the ballot next fall."

Unions are simultaneously shifting their money and
attention to focus more on political races at the state
level, where several legislatures have targeted
bargaining rights for state employees.

In the first quarter of this year, union political
action committees sharply cut back funding for House
Democrats, according to an analysis of federal
disclosure reports by The Washington Post. Those
contributions fell by half compared with the first
quarter of 2009, from $5.8 million down to $3.1
million.

By comparison, corporate PACs cut their contributions
to House Democrats by 26 percent, to a total of $7.2
million. Union contributions to Republicans decreased
as well, but by just 13 percent.

The most dramatic shift was in giving by the
International Union of Operating Engineers, which
represents construction workers and has a large federal
PAC. In the first quarter of 2009, the union gave $1.6
million to House Democrats, while the PAC this year has
not made a single contribution to either party.

Officials with the engineer's union said in a statement
that high unemployment in the construction sector was
its top priority and that it "wants to see Congress
more urgently address this issue on a bipartisan basis
and move on legislation to create jobs."

The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners gave
$350,000 to House Democrats in the first quarter of
2009 but donated only $148,000 in the first three
months of this year. A spokesman for union, which left
the AFL-CIO in a 2001 split of the federation, could
not be reached.

The International Association of Fire Fighters
announced last month that it would indefinitely halt
all political giving on the federal level, citing what
it said was the weak response of congressional leaders
to legislative threats in the states to unions.

"I have not seen our friends in these incredible
attacks against us across the country," said Harold
Schaitberger, the union's president. "Where are our
friends in Congress? Where have they been to fight back
on our behalf with the same voracity and the same
discipline of our enemies?"

Schaitberger also cited major disappointments at the
federal level, including the deal between President
Obama and Congress to extend Bush-era tax cuts for
upper-income Americans and the defeat of the Employee
Free Choice Act, which would have made it easier for
unions to organize.

"There's just been a pattern of disappointment and
failures in advancing an agenda that helps the working
middle class," he said. "It's a pattern that goes back
years."

It is unclear whether unions will end up backing Obama
in his 2012 reelection campaign with the same
enthusiasm as they did in 2008. Trumka voiced muted
criticism of the president on Friday, saying he didn't
"make the honor role" for the execution of his agenda.
He faulted Obama for losing a message war with
Republicans over stimulus funding and pushing a free-
trade agreement with Colombia.

Labor's threats to Democrats follow a major push in
last year's midterm election, when unions spent $8
million backing a liberal challenger to former senator
Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.). The challenger, then-
lieutenant governor Bill Halter, lost to Lincoln in a
runoff, and a weakened Lincoln went on to lose the
general election to Republican John Boozman.

Trumka trumpeted the outcome of that race in a
question-and-answer period after his speech Friday. A
moderator asked what was different about his latest
rhetoric given that unions have threatened to withdraw
support for Democrats in the past.

"Ask Blanche Lincoln," he replied.

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