Labor was fully energized with the election of Obama. We supported him, we campaigned for him, we expected big things from him. After all, Obama supported the Employee Free Choice Act, reversed several Bush executive orders when he assumed the presidency, and seems to “get” unions and working people. So Labor had high hopes that Obama would remake the NLRB, enact health care and EFCA, revamp government agencies and help workers regain what was lost in the Bush Era. What labor got instead was a dismal recession, stalled NLRB and government agency nominees, the Employee Free Choice Act put on the back burner so that health care “reform” could be enacted, and the lowest wage increases since records have been kept.
The lesson of all of this is that there is only so much the man at the top can do to stem the losses in the economy, overcome fierce Republican resistance to everything Obama, and take on a congress that is as interested in campaign contributions as it is in keeping campaign promises. For years institutional Labor has labored under the illusion that change can come from the top down, starting with the AFL-CIO. The real lesson of 2009 is that change has to come from the bottom — from organizers in the trenches, from state and local initiatives, from winning the fight on the local level, not in Washington. For 2010 Labor must keep plugging away in Washington, yet always remember that the pace of change is glacial and that in reality change must percolate up from the bottom, not descend from the top.
The lesson of all of this is that there is only so much the man at the top can do to stem the losses in the economy, overcome fierce Republican resistance to everything Obama, and take on a congress that is as interested in campaign contributions as it is in keeping campaign promises. For years institutional Labor has labored under the illusion that change can come from the top down, starting with the AFL-CIO. The real lesson of 2009 is that change has to come from the bottom — from organizers in the trenches, from state and local initiatives, from winning the fight on the local level, not in Washington. For 2010 Labor must keep plugging away in Washington, yet always remember that the pace of change is glacial and that in reality change must percolate up from the bottom, not descend from the top.
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