President Obama Must Speak the Word Union Loudly

On Labor Day two years later, radicals in the Republican Party were pushing so-called Right to Work (RTW) legislation that denies companies and unions the right to bargain over requiring payments in lieu of dues from workers who decline to join the union. These laws weaken unions because they allow workers to shirk their responsibility to help pay the costs of the union services they benefit from.  Here’s what President Obama said then:

“I know it’s not easy when there’s some folks who have their sights trained on you. . .And I want everybody here to know, as long as I’m in the White House I’m going to stand up for collective bargaining.  And we’re going to keep at it.  Because having a voice on the job and a chance to organize and a chance to negotiate for a fair day’s pay after a hard day’s work, that is the right of every man and woman in America – not just the CEO in the corner office, but also the janitor who cleans that office after the CEO goes home.  Everybody has got the same right.”

As he ran for President in 2007, Obama walked a picket line with UNITE HERE Local 1 in Chicago, and he said this in a speech at Converse College in South Carolina:

“And understand this: If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I’m in the White House, I’ll put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself, I’ll walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States of America. Because workers deserve to know that somebody is standing in their corner.”

When the radical Republican governor of Wisconsin stomped on the bargaining rights of public sector union workers, when the radical Republican governor of Ohio restricted the collective bargaining rights of 360,000 public workers, when the radical Republican governors of Indiana and Michigan signed legislation denying workers bargaining rights, some union members called for President Obama to put on those comfortable shoes. But he did not.

He did not put on those shoes when his Republican opponent Mitt Romney attacked 29,000 Chicago teachers striking in President Obama’s hometown of Chicago, or when Hostess Brands management bankrupted the company – again – and speciously blamed the loss of Twinkies on the company’s15,000 union workers, or when the American Crystal Sugar Co. locked out 1,300 union workers.

Now, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that in 2012 the number of American workers in labor unions fell to a record low of 11.3 percent, down from 20.1 percent two decades earlier. Now, new legislation to limit bargaining rights has been introduced in Pennsylvania and Missouri, and even in the U.S. Congress by radical Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul.

These Republicans intend to wipe out labor unions. In his 2011 Labor Day speech, President Obama described the consequence of killing unions:

“America cannot have a strong, growing economy without a strong, growing middle class and without a strong labor movement.”

The American labor movement knows President Obama supports it philosophically. He has said so repeatedly on Labor Day. But he never mentioned unions in his inaugural or State of the Union addresses, except once in passing. As extremists try to destroy the labor movement in this country, it’s essential for President Obama to formally and forcefully declare to the entire nation the merits of unions.

Last month, in his second inaugural address, the President said:

“preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.”

His fifth State of the Union speech this week gives President Obama a perfect opportunity to proclaim to all of America that he will preserve the freedom to engage in collective action.It’s an important moment for him to say the word union loudly.