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Stalled agenda irks labor leadersWASHINGTON - With Democrats in control of Congress and the White House, organized labor had hoped to be celebrating a long list of legislative successes this year. Instead, labor’s agenda has been pushed down on the priority list by the very lawmakers they helped elect, leaving some union backers frustrated.Labor is eager to win passage of a “card check’’ bill, a measure that would make it easier for workers to form unions, but the White House and Congress took up a Wall Street bailout plan first.In the health care debate, labor is seeking to avoid a tax on expensive health care benefits. But President Obama, who slammed the idea during the campaign, this summer indicated he might be open to such an idea.The Obama administration is also encouraging creation of some charter schools, a long-time concern of teachers’ unions, who fear money will be diverted from other public schools. And an increase in the minimum wage, which supporters pushed in the last Congress, when Republican George W. Bush was in the White House, hasn’t even been introduced in this Congress.“It’s beyond belief to me,’’ said Robert Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. While Obama and Congress inherited “a big mess’’ from Bush, Haynes said, “there aren’t any excuses anymore. If you can’t deliver health care, and you can’t deliver jobs, and if you can’t deliver [card check legislation], and you can’t figure out how to take care of the working people of this great city and country, you don’t deserve to stay in office.’’*snip*“Labor is the core of the Democratic party. Labor has always delivered for the Democratic party. But the Democratic party doesn’t always deliver for labor,’’ said Representative Dennis Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio. Obama “still has time,’’ Kucinich said, but he added that he thinks Democrats need to step up and help workers to merit the campaign help unions can provide.
