Becker, Pearce, Southers And Change

Late last week we heard some good news. President Obama got some traction on the confirmation of 27 nominees to federal agencies, the economic numbers and indicators for the US looked slightly better and people in the center were confident enough of their position to roll out some new too-optimistic charts and numbers.

This week we're hearing about the first nuclear power plant being built in the US in about 30 years. The capture of a leading Taliban commander has apparently pushed news of last week's civilian casualties out of the press. The American media is saying that the Greek crisis is essentially over because the Euro is showing signs of resurgence while the dollar is slipping. We're apparently desperate for good news.

Craig Becker and Mark Pearce, Obama's nominees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), were not part of the deal on the 27 nominees. Becker and Pearce are lawyers who have previously worked for unions. They are the kind of easy targets that makes the ultra-right see red, although Becker has received majority backing in the Senate and both he and Pearce have won committee support. What's troubling to me is that so few liberals seem to get what's wrong with the picture of an Obama administration without Becker and Pearce and without forward movement on more of labor's progressive agendas.

Granting that Obama may name Becker and Pearce to the NLRB during the congressional recess, we are left asking if he has the will to do that and if labor has the will to fight for additional nominees and put on a press for a full labor political agenda. The problems here are at least two-fold. A series of needed recess appointments are likely to further inflame the right and throw any deals made on the fire. They can also backfire and have the unfortunate effect of driving a wedge between union leaders and members. When the Republicans used recess apppointments we quite rightly objected; support now for appointments from the center or left would require organizing and a class-struggle approach which the center does not have the political will to move.

And therein lies much of our problem, I think. Workers' interests are being sidelined, Obama is really unlikely to make the necessary apppointments and labor is either being taken for granted or discounted entirely. This hurts the chances for the needed electoral advances in 2010 and works to isolate Obama in 2012. The fiction that labor demands, higher wages and better benefits put recovery from the economic crisis at risk is being enshrined as truth. In the case of the Erroll Southers TSA nomination, the charge that Southers might have given in to demands by unions for recognition and contract talks, and that that would put US airport security at risk, sunk the nomination with barely a fight. Accept the logic of blocking Becker, Pearce and Southers and its implications and nothing on labor's progressive agenda can pass. We're left instead with nuclear power, a new version of trickle-down economics, papered-over war news and demands for jobs being substituted for a broader labor program.

The bunglers of progress are, or seem to be, in the dead-center of the Obama administration while the actual enemies of progress are Republicans in the Solid South with political positions such as those held by Sen. Jim DeMint. This gives the entire struggle special dimensions and a historic context.

Obama gets called out here by labor for cause. During the presidential campaign he pledged support for collective bargaining rights for the TSA screeners. Southers remained on program and point while Obama backed down. A bad message about the rest of labor's program is being sent here, intentionally or not. The Republicans demonized labor and got away with it again.

AFL-CIO President Trumka is calling on union members to demand that President Obama fight Republican obstructionism and use his executive power to appoint Becker and Pearce to the NLRB. The White House Switchboard can be reached at 202-456-1111 or 202-456-1414.