One of the concepts we learned about growing up in southern Minnesota was "the good union man." Personified by a favorite uncle who'd helped bring the IAM to the shop floor of a factory in Mankato, the good union man (we now know enough to say "or woman") looked out for others before himself.
Uncle Troy, who later worked in the building trades, also possessed as keen a sense of humor as of the common interest. Some analysts will downplay the role of labor in MN-01, but I've met many good union men and women in the district who've carried Troy's spirit and laughter into a new century. One of them is Tim Walz.
Walz gets the part about working for the common good--just listen to his radio ad or his speech to the Minnesota AFL-CIO
annual convention (courtesy of Minnesota Public Radio). His
hearing--damaged from years in an artillery battalion in the National
Guard-- was restored by health care benefits his union contract
provides. He understands that health care should be available for all
Americans.
We need both courage and laughter in this race.
Today's Mankato Free Press looks at the dilemma facing American workers, while suggesting that Congress could return to Clinton-era deficit reduction:
— While every laborer’s goal might be to work less and earn more money, it appears the current state of affairs puts workers in a spot of working harder for about the same amount of money.
[snip]
What can the average worker do?
Besides working harder at your current job or get a higher paying job, there are other less obvious things to consider.
Tell members of Congress or candidates for office that lowering or eliminating the federal deficit would go a long way to helping workers. . . .
To bring the deficit down, Congress also needs spending discipline. The average worker will benefit from a Congress that adopts pay-as-you-go rules for congressional spending. Those rules, implemented during the Clinton administration but allowed to expire during the Bush administration, require that if Congress increases spending or provides a tax cut that reduces revenue, it must cut spending somewhere else to maintain a balanced budget. . . .
The government also can help workers get that higher-paying job by providing educational opportunities with a cost or price that is within reach of the average worker. Skyrocketing tuition at state colleges and universities, along with new federally-approved higher interest rates on student loans, don’t help average workers get ahead.
There’s plenty of work elected leaders should consider this Labor Day.
Residents of the First might consider electing a new leader to Congress when their current representative has been unable to keep promises about reducing the deficit and has voted to increase the cost of student loans.
We also think a Congress that would change the climate for organizing would be a good thing. The Free Press presents a false dilemma--work harder or get a different job--when a third alternate exists: organize.
And the truth is, Americans are working harder, but not are not reaping the benefits of that hard work. The Star Tribune's Labor Day editorial lays out the facts:
In the last 10 years, the productivity of the average worker has surged by 30 percent. Yet wages and salaries have risen just 11 percent. Total compensation (including pensions and health insurance) has climbed even less, and the household income of the median family is up just 7 percent.
Since the recession of 2001, the overall economy has been growing steadily for five years. Yet the income of the median household is down, the number of people in poverty is up, and the number of uninsured Americans is at an all-time high -- trends that are unprecedented in previous postwar recoveries.
Where did all the money go? The distinguishing feature of the 2001-2005 expansion is the remarkable share of income that has gone to corporate profits and high-income households. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington think tank with liberal leanings but impeccable math, reported Thursday that corporate profits this year captured the largest share of national income in half a century, and that the share of national income going to employee compensation (even including health insurance) is at its lowest level in nearly 40 years.
Much has been made of the recent split between the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win unions. It's a split that I can understand--too much emphasis had been on politics and not enough on organizing. However, today's Pioneer Press reports that:
More than a year after their breakup, former partners in organized labor are trying to heal some differences by joining forces politically for the November midterm elections.
They're cooperating now for the sake of those who depend on them — about 15 million union members.
Both the AFL-CIO and the breakaway Change to Win alliance are negotiating an agreement that would allow them to coordinate their massive effort to educate and mobilize workers.
[snip]
Both sides are spending most of their money and efforts on lobbying voters and getting them to the polls. They share many concerns, including workers' pay, job security, and health and retirement benefits.
They also want a Congress that's more supportive of the right to organize workers.
The AFL-CIO's program to communicate with voters and turn them out became so successful in the last few elections that it became a model for all political operations in recent years.
Republicans and their allies borrowed from the labor strategy — and used those tactics in 2004 to win a very close election for President Bush. That has put pressure on labor to do a better job than ever of educating and turning out voters — despite the rift in the labor movement.
So what does the larger story have to do with a congressional campaign in rural Minnesota? One obvious point: a good union man is challenging the incumbent. As a teacher, Walz is a member of Education Minnesota, the state teachers union created by a merger between the MEA and MFT.
He is recommended by Education Minnesota. But Tim Walz is not just any teacher; he was selected as a 2003 Teacher of Excellence.
There's more labor presence in the Minnesota's First Congressional District than the conventional wisdom maintains. There are labor councils in Albert Lea, Austin, Mankato, Rochester and Worthington. This week alone, Labor 2006 plans door knocks and phone banks in Austin, Windom and Worthington.
The Change to Win unions will also be a force in the First. Walz has secured the Teamsters DRIVE endorsement, among others. There's one Teamster local union, Local 160, that is headquartered in Rochester. A union hall, shared by Teamsters with other unions, sits along Highway 169/60 in South Bend Township, across the Blue Earth River from Mankato.
Beside that building, a big Tim Walz sign greets travellers on the well-travelledd road.
Another Change to Win union is asserting itself in Minnesota's First. The United Brotherhood of Carpenters recently revived Local Union 464 in Mankato, a spin-off from Carpenters Local Union 1382 in Rochester. Many DFL activists will recall the top-knotch political work done by the Carpenters at the DFL convention in Rochester.
Gutknecht's labor record? Read it here [use pulldown menu to select Gutknecht].
How has the Gutknecht campaign responded in the past to labor support for his challengers? Mark My Words recalled an ad from the 1996 campaign:
. . . Minnesota Republican Congressman Gil Gutknecht had a masterpiece of an ad against Democratic challenger Mary Reider. A huge influx of union money financed Reider's early campaign ads and Gutknecht's response featured a lady (seen only from the back but meant to represent Reider) sitting behind a desk, IRS-like, while a long line of weary and overworked taxpayers handed over all their money to Mary Reider. Gutknecht's voice-over suggested that "Washington labor bosses have financed Mary Reider's campaign...and will demand to be paid back". The closing scene featured a little girl with a piggy bank approaching the Reider caricature, recoiling in sadness and fear about having to fork over her money while Reider demandingly beckoned the girl to the desk with her hand. Comedy gold.
Gutknecht also accused the AFL-CIO of running ads that distorted his voting record, according to Minnesota Public Radio. Then MN AFL-CIO state president Bernard Brommer responded:
"If I was him I would try and divert people's attention also from my votes on the Gingrich legislative agenda - I'd certainly do that too. That's an old dodge trying to get people to focus on something else - hopefully they won't pay attention to the votes you cast in public office."
Or to the promises made.
We'll probably see more of the same tactics this fall, as if union households didn't exist in the district, as if the central concerns of organized labor--health care, pensions, education--were not everyone's issues.
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