AFL-CIO: Not Worth the Cost to Invest in South for 2014
Elections
by William Bigelow 25 Feb 2014,
8:08 AM PDT
The AFL-CIO is conceding its union lacks the power in the South to
influence the upcoming 2014 elections, so it is not investing heavily in three
hotly contested Senate races.
The AFL-CIO looked at the number
of union members in Arkansas, Louisiana, and North
Carolina and decided it just was not worth it.
AFL-CIO political director Michael
Podhorzer confessed, "Those states are states where we have relatively
low union density. I think you'll see in other battleground Senate states like Michigan, Alaska, [and] Iowa a really vigorous
union program."
Democratic Sens. Mark Pryor in Arkansas, Mary Landrieu in Louisiana,
and Kay Hagan in North Carolina
are all in close races for the Senate. North Carolina AFL-CIO President James
Andrews conceded, "I would love to say that North Carolina is a major target for our
movement nationally, and everyone is gonna be playing big here. But the reality
is some will and some will not, and at the end of the day I'm rooting for
wherever they're playing."
The South’s right-to-work states
and a conservative electorate have been a bulwark against a union takeover;
across the nation, the union membership rate is 11.3%, but in Arkansas,
Louisiana, and North Carolina, it is roughly 5%.
The AFL-CIO wanted to unionize the
auto plants being built in the South, but they cannot get a foothold. Workers
at a Tennessee Volkswagen plant rejected the United Auto Workers' attempt to
unionize them as Podhorzer whined about GOP intervention:
If five years ago you even raised
the idea that we came so close in a state like Tennessee it wouldn't have been credible.
Obviously, it would have been better if the workers had not been intimidated by
the local politicians into believing this is gonna hurt their jobs.
The Center for Responsive Politics
noted that of the $5.8 million raised by Hagan's campaign and leadership PAC,
only $74,000 came from labor; only $166,000 of Landrieu's $6.3 million came
from labor; and only about $186,000 of Pryor's $4.1 million came from labor.
Arkansas AFL-CIO President Alan Hughes
protested, "I think if you go back and look at some of the numbers, how
close the races are, we say we have 32,000 members but you could say it's
64,000 because of spouses. I think we can still make an impact, especially
doing ground work."
But Andrews concluded, "The
reality is: Will they be here and pull out every stop to make this happen? Or
will they be in Ohio or Pennsylvania? I understand that. I make
those kinds of decisions every day."
AFL-CIO
Kirk
Adams was the organizing director for the AFL-CIO, and married to Cecile
Richards.
Note: Cecile Richards
is married to Kirk Adams, and the president
of the Planned Parenthood Federation of
America.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the Economic Policy Institute.
George
Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, was a contributor for the American Bridge 21st Century, a supporter
for America Coming Together, a contributor
for MoveOn.org, and the chairman for
the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Economic Policy Institute, the International
Rescue Committee, and the Roosevelt
Institute.
Richard L. Trumka
is a director at the Economic Policy
Institute, and the president for the AFL-CIO.
American
Bridge 21st Century was a contributor for the AFL-CIO.
Steve Rosenthal
was the founder for America Coming
Together, and a political director for the AFL-CIO.
Tom
Matzzie was the Washington
director for MoveOn.org, and the online
mobilization director for the AFL-CIO.
Barbara Shailor
was the overseer at the International
Rescue Committee, a governor for the Roosevelt
Institute, and the international director for the AFL-CIO.
AFL-CIO
is a Catalist client.
George
Soros was an investor in Catalist.
Michael Podhorzer
is a board of manager’s member for Catalist,
and a political director at the AFL-CIO.
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