I would think that the AFL President has been too busy to send out e-mails. He has been busy distancing himself from the most important labor struggle of our era which is shaping up at the Port Of Longview. He has been brushing up on his bureaucrat-eeze to make sure no one would think he is involved in solidarity actions for the ILWU - after all for him it is "merely a jurisdictional dispute". As the conflict was escalating Trumka was heading to Washington to sit in Michelle Obama's "box" for the State Of The Union speech. So I guess he did have time for e-mails.
Bill Onasch has a response:
Is the Era of the One Percent Over?
That was the question asked by AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka in the subject line of a “Dear Bill” e-mail message I received from him the day after the President’s State of the Union Address. He gushed the good news answer in the very first paragraph, “Did you see last night’s State of the Union? It was clear throughout the President’s speech that the era of the 1% is over.” Some Federation members may have missed the televised speech for example, those on picket lines at American Crystal Sugar, Cooper Tire & Rubber, and Fresno County–and undoubtedly appreciated and were relieved to hear this announcement.
Of course, brother Trumka does not make such bold assertions without corroborating evidence. “One big victory—among many—in last night’s speech was President Obama’s announcement of a thorough investigation into the misconduct in the mortgage market that wrecked our economy....Thank President Obama for listening—and urge him to keep it up.” We have heard similar pledges before. So far there are no reports of swarms of GulfStreams carrying the frightened rich to refuge in the Cayman Islands. As we enter Obama’s last year of this term, foreclosures still account for twenty percent of all home sales in the USA. There were, of course, some crooks in the financial sector who played minor supporting roles in triggering the Great Recession. But most of the housing and other bubbles that burst were the result of shenanigans legalized during decades of bipartisan deregulation.The President retained the Fed Chairman upon whose watch the melt down occurred. Chairman Bernanke, who believes public works programs prolonged the Great Depression, is known for the lightest hand on the rudder of all central bank heads. Obama’s Treasury Secretary still shares the same Clubrooms and vacation spots with his “too big to fail” peers who “earned” ten or more-digit bonuses for losing people’s homes and life savings–and Geithner has made clear he is anxious to get back to the private sector. Despite his long experience in financial circles as former AFL secretary-treasurer, Trumka–like every outraged liberal--remains convinced the system is basically good if we’re not victimized by rogue bad guys. They cannot allow themselves to accept the inconvenient truth–this is what capitalism looks like.
But wait, there’s more.“President Obama made it clear that children and our future must be priorities” my leader told me. He then hands off to expert opinion--Randi Weingarten of the AFT. Her joy overfloweth, “Obama also made clear tonight what America’s teachers have long understood: We can’t test our way to a middle class; we must educate our way to a middle class....Respecting public school teachers and providing them with the tools and resources they need to help our children learn and grow are essential to building a strong public education system, competing in a global economy and restoring economic opportunity for all.” When sister Weingarten finally takes her retirement she should consider a second career writing pop fiction. Not since Horace Mann’s fight for Common Schools prevailed in the nineteenth century has public education been under such powerful attack. “Austerity” measures have led to the closings of hundreds of schools, along with firings of tens of thousands of teachers around the country. Adding to the funding crisis, Obama’s “Race to the Top” is promoting privatization in all components of education; has declared war on teacher seniority (tenure); and virtually mandated concessionary renegotiation of a number of teacher union contracts.Back to Trumka: “And Obama demanded investment in good, high-paying jobs—and said he would work to bring manufacturing back to America.”U.S. manufacturing employment peaked in 1979 at about 19.5 million jobs. That has now slumped to about 11.8 million. But over this same period industrial production nearly doubled. Despite the very substantial offshoring of work since NAFTA and the China Trade Agreement, the USA is still an industrial powerhouse. This work is done with far fewer, but much more productive, workers--and mostly at substantially lower real wages. We used to say workers in such dire straits need a union. However, many of them are already paying dues to the AFL or Change to Win.
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