As election season heats up, unions are making hay by grabbing short-term employees from several Democratic Party hopefuls. One presumes they don’t anticipate much of a fight from Dems, so even though most of these folks will be out of a job come the new year, the unions might as well pick their pockets while they can. The campaign teams of Cory Booker and Julián Castro became the latest to unionize, following those of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. The Teamsters picked off the Booker staff, while the Campaign Workers Guild grabbed the Castro group. All is not peaches and cream for the unionized workers though, as an Unfair Labor Practice has been filed against the Sanders campaign. At the recent AFSCME forum in Las Vegas, nineteen Dem contenders showed up to pitch their platforms to Big Labor. The AFSCME, usually one to quickly endorse a candidate, is being coy this time around, and it’s expected other unions will follow suit.
Sen. Bernie Sanders
- Card check organizing
- Compulsory mediation to first contract
- Elimination of Right To Work
- Codify the Browning-Ferris joint-employer standard into law
- And more…
On the other side of the race, the Labor Department’s potential apprenticeship initiative may steer construction workers away from Trump. Although they were hopefully supportive of Trump due to his stance on job creation in their industry, the Building Trades may come down hard if they feel their job-training programs could be undermined. The Building Trades is a union federation representing millions of construction workers across the country.
