Smaller Unions Complain Of White House Cold Shoulder

It’s not hard to get a union president, even one who thinks the White House is generally doing things right, to wax melancholy about the state of modern politics and labor’s role in it. Communications Workers of America president Larry Cohen had nothing but good things to say about the White House interactions with labor and Tamarin, but he said times are changing for unions in politics. Direct access isn’t what it once was.

“Attacks led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on labor have paid off for the Chamber and its members,” he said. “Collective bargaining is on its like last legs in America. And there’s an impact from that [on political influence.] And so our strategy is to work with a large range of groups that potentially represent a majority of the country.”

Obama’s relationship with the larger unions like Cohen’s — whose money and people power are still the engine of Democratic politics — is generally seen as good by top labor leaders.

“I actually think this president and this White House has a much better feel for the labor than the Clinton White House,” said Bill Samuel, director of government affairs at the AFL-CIO, and Al Gore’s labor liaison during the Clinton administration. “They could be critical of the labor movement because they were New Democrats. That’s not what this White House is about…I think there’s a much more organic understanding of the labor movement and our importance.”

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