Re: “Inside WA legislative workers’ union push as frustration builds with Democratic leadership” [May 17, Local News]:
Over the years, I have engaged in Labor Neighbor drives to encourage union members to vote. The majority of them voted for Democrats, frequently crucial to a narrow victory. I have leafleted and phoned with other union members to ensure transit funding. I have participated in the Amalgamated Transit Union’s Committee on Political Education to educate and lobby for Democratic legislation on behalf of working families. Labor unions passed a citizens’ initiative to index the minimum wage to inflation, saving Democratic legislators repeated minimum-wage fights in the state house.
That Democrats refuse to allow legislative staff to unionize is a real slap in the face.
Labor delivers lots of Democratic votes. Yet, time and again, Democrats fail to pass promised legislation to make joining a union a fair, simple process via card check. When civil rights activists and labor organized a liberal majority of Democrats under President Lyndon Johnson, Johnson continually promised that if labor helped him pass just one more program, he would repeal the nearly insurmountable, punitive barriers to organizing. He reneged. So has every Democratic president since, so far.
Dems: Stop shooting yourselves in the foot. Union members vote for you. Let everyone organize.
Linda Anderson, Seattle