Let’s make the 2012 election about unions and not let day-to-day political debate over budgets, taxes, foreign policy and personality obscure the fact that American workers are falling behind.
Some democrats will worry that too much union-talk will scare off independent voters. The mainstream media will refer to us as an “interest group.”
Our job is to act like a movement, not just a constituency.
We can do that.
Ask the 15,000 activists who marched through downtown LA on March 26.
An improved economy in 2012 can help re-elect Obama and possibly keep the democratic majority in the senate. But that can’t be our only goal.
Madison has given us our best shot in decades to explain how union decline leads to economic disparity and how a stonger labor movement narrows the wage, income and wealth gap.
Then we make the case to American workers that unions can improve their lives.
Not so easy.
But union-busting republican governors have opened the door for a national discussion of our movement. And the public seems willing to take a fresh look at how unions give ordinary people a bigger piece of the pie.
So just as tea party activists hold republicans accountable to their agenda, we should prod democrats to commit to an expanding labor movement.
We're not asking for socialism or big government.
Just liberty, justice and “collective bargaining rights” for all.