Is Obama’s Relationship to Organized Labor a Democratic Scandal?

Obama’s ties to organized labor run deep and some might see this relationship as similar to the Republican scandal’s relationship to big business. In fact, many see union support as tipping the election scales in his favor in 2008. That was obvious a month after the presidential election, see the following from an article from December of 2008:

“Barack Obama reaffirmed the President-elect’s support for the labor movement’s chief legislative priority in a one-word statement issued to the Huffington Post on late Tuesday…”Yes.”

Some might wonder why the Administration has held an open dialog with organized labor while being criticized for closing out Republicans. In fact, during the negotiation and debate period of the historic health care bill the Obama Administration was in close ties with the big players of organized labor:

“It is unconscionable that $59 billion will be extracted from taxpayers and others to subsidize labor unions. The Obama administration and Congress are now planning on taking $15 billion more from hospitals and $10 billion more from pharmaceutical makers to cover part of this fortune. But there is no reason hospital and drug costs should go up to subsidize unions.”

Some think it is part of a larger usurp of power by unions:

“This transfer of wealth to unions has become part of a pattern. Over the last year, the unions have been given a long string of massive wealth transfers. Take the government forcing GM and Chrysler bondholders to forfeit their legal right to be the lead creditors so that auto unions could get large shareholdings in both companies through bankruptcy. Similarly, the stimulus package placed all sorts of restrictions on how the money could be spent, requiring that much of the spending go only to unionized workers.”

While many think that this relationship is too cozy, we must remember that the union population in this country is far larger than the population that control and make profit off of big business. What the Obama administration is aiming to do is reclaim the middle class. It’s about spreading the wealth and benefits of living and working hard in America, after all, union workers are for the most part employed. Here is what the current state of wealth distribution looks like in America:

“Today, the concentration of privately held wealth at the top is at its highest peak since 1929, the year the financial markets crashed and gave rise to the Great Depression of the 1930s. At that time, 25% of the population was out of work.

Despite our economy being mired in the deepest recession since the 1930s, people in the top 1% continue to own as much wealth as those in the bottom 90%, and education is essential to reversing this trend and constructing a strategy for recovery.”

We should keep a watchful eye on president Obama’s relationship with the union. Unions in this country are very powerful and influential.  With that being said unions represent millions of people in this country and those people deserve a voice in our government. The Republican Scandal has, over the past thirty years, created a system in which only a select few can generate any significant wealth. Obama promised in his campaign to build consensus to create a better life for the average American. I would rather he create this change with help from the masses and not the wealthy few.

Sources

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/18/obamas-59-billion-giveaway-to-unions/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/11/AR2010011103646.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/03/obama-team-restates-stron_n_147939.html

http://www.faireconomy.org/issues/growing_divide?gclid=CNiBtfGPlKICFcRM5Qod7Vs6FA