Night’s Democratic Debate,
Showing Unions’ Growing Clout in the Party
December 19, 2019 • 1
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Trump’s victories in key swing
states showed that Democrats had to focus more on workers’ support,
writes Ruben J. Garcia.
Organized labor’s clout in the
Democratic Party is growing. For evidence, look no further than the small
California food services union that nearly managed
to shut down a presidential debate.
Unite Here Local 11, which
represents 150 cooks, dishwashers, cashiers and servers, had planned to picket
Thursday night’s debate at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where
they work for Sodexo, a food contractor. The dispute involved their struggle to
negotiate a collective bargaining agreement on better terms.
All seven candidates invited
to participate, starting
with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, said they would refuse to cross a picket line
to take the stage.
After the candidates pulled
out and Democratic National Committee Chairman and former U.S. Labor Secretary
Tom Perez got involved, the national spotlight helped the groups quickly secure
a deal that allowed the event to take place. The tentative agreement included
a three-year contract, a 25 percent increase in compensation and a 50
percent drop in health care costs for the workers, many of whom make at or
slightly above the minimum wage.
That the labor movement is a
key constituency for the Democratic Party is hardly new. But I believe, in part
based on my
research on unions in Nevada, there are some differences that may make
labor even more important as we head into 2020.
The first difference is the
electoral map.
Today, many of the places
where labor is strongest are
key swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Nevada,
with union membership near or above 10%. In states like these where the margin
of victory is expected to be very tight, union members will be critical for the
Democratic nominee.
Going into the 2016 election, these
states were expected to be safely “blue” in favor of Hillary Clinton.
But President Donald Trump’s victories in places like Michigan and Pennsylvania
show that none of them can be taken for granted, putting more attention on
gaining workers’ support.
Second, with the decline in
manufacturing in the Upper Midwest, service unions have become especially
important. This matters because service unions, which interact with the public
much more than manufacturing workers, can
bring more publicity and political
clout to their labor disputes in schools, hotels and the streets of
heavily populated urban centers.
One of the most powerful
examples is the Culinary Workers Union in Las Vegas, which is affiliated with
Unite Here. The union recently
hosted three top Democratic candidates – Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and
Elizabeth Warren – to address its members as it mulls which one to back ahead
of the Nevada caucuses in February 2020.
The union is seen by
many as responsible for flipping
Nevada’s state legislature and the governor’s mansion from red to blue in
recent elections. And its get-out-the-vote operation helped the Democratic
candidate in the last three presidential elections pick up the state. This
strength of labor in what is a right-to-work
state – which allows workers to not pay any dues to the union that
represents them – is what I have dubbed the
“Nevada paradox.”
The fact that Unite Here used
the Democratic debate to help its cause is no accident. Its president, Donald
“D” Taylor, has
been vocal about the need for the Democratic Party to not take labor’s
support for granted.
On issues like health care,
immigration and efforts to organize at nonunion casinos on the Vegas strip,
Taylor has demanded that candidates back up their words with action, including
walking the picket line if necessary.
As such, his union has been a
model of political engagement for the rest of the labor movement. And it shows
that the candidates should expect organized workers to have a larger voice than
usual as they vie to be the nominee to take on Trump.
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