Organized Labor’s Support for Democrats in the Shutdown

There was some consternation when the American Federation of Government Employees calling for Democrats to end the government shutdown. I don’t really blame AFGE for this–the union exists for the interests of its members, who are really struggling right now. But that doesn’t mean that other unions need to follow AFGE. They know their interest is in improving health care for Americans and pushing back on Trump’s attempt at dictatorship, which is bad for all workers. So the vast majority of unions are all-in on supporting the Democratic position on the shutdown.

Many labor unions, a key bloc within the Democratic Party, support the push for an extension of Obamacare subsidies and remain eager to fight a president they view as an adversary of workers, some labor analysts and union officials said.

Jaime Contreras, an executive vice president at the 185,000-member Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, said he sympathized with the challenges faced by federal workers but he disagreed with AFGE’s approach.

“They have to do what they have to do for their members,” Contreras told ABC News.

But, he added: “It’s a false choice in my opinion to say we need to give up affordable healthcare for millions and millions of Americans in order to bring federal workers back to work.”

SEIU 32BJ represents about 2,400 federal contractors who work as security officers, food-services workers and other employees, meaning they run the risk of missing out on backpay when the government reopens, Contreras said.

“These workers are bearing the brunt of this shutdown,” Contreras said, later adding: “We’re urging our Democratic friends to hold the line.”

The stay-the-course approach maintained by key labor organizations has likely eased the pressure faced by Democratic lawmakers in the aftermath of the AFGE announcement, some labor analysts told ABC News.

“The federal unions aren’t the biggest players,” Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told ABC News.

The National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s biggest labor union representing almost 3 million members, stands by a statement earlier this month that supports addressing healthcare and government funding, an NEA official told ABC News.

United Steelworkers International President David McCall told ABC News he supports a solution “both prioritizing affordable health care and funding the essential services our government provides.”

One thing that really bothers me in comments here is a reflexive union skepticism if not outright anti-unionism by some people. Among the things that are striking to me about this is that a lot of these people also in all other circumstances are rightfully skeptical of the MSM but will swallow any story about bad unions hook, line, and sinker. And there are some unions behaving badly. But the vast majority are doing the work they can to make this nation a better place and most of the media pays no attention to that.