Liberals call on Obama to fulfill campaign promise, walk with Wisconsin union protesters

Students from Horlick High School in Racine, Wis., show support for their teachers by joining thousands of others in protests at the statehouse in Madison, Wis., on Friday, February 17, 2011.

/ AP Photo/The Oshkosh Northwestern, Adam Jungwirth

Back in 2007, then-Sen. Barack Obama said that if he were president, he'd be walking the picket lines in solidarity with workers if unions were ever threatened. Now, the president has that chance in Wisconsin, but the White House says President Obama has no such plans.

Massive demonstrations have gone on for days in Wisconsin, as public workers and their supporters protest Republican Gov. Scott Walker's so-called "budget repair bill," which would scale back public workers' benefits, as well as their collective bargaining rights.

Public workers and their supporters argue that eliminating most public unions' collective bargaining rights has nothing to do with the budget and that the governor should drop that element of his plan. Walker isn't budging, however -- meaning that the ongoing debate has more to do with ideology than the state budget.

On the campaign trail in 2007, Mr. Obama had this to say: "If American workers are being denied their right to organize when I'm in the White House, I will put on a comfortable pair of shoes and I will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States."

CBS News chief White House correspondent Chip Reid asked White House Press Secretary Jay Carney about that promise today, to which Carney responded that the president has already made his position on the matter clear.

"I think that the president has different means of speaking out on issues and being heard," he said. "And, clearly, he did. He made his viewpoints known on the situation in Wisconsin, the need for people to come together."

In an interview last week with local television station WTMJ-TV, Mr. Obama said, "Some of what I've heard coming out of Wisconsin, where you're just making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain generally seems like more of an assault on unions. And I think it's very important for us to understand that public employees, they're our neighbors, they're our friends... And I think it's important not to vilify them or to suggest that somehow all these budget problems are due to public employees."

Organizing for America, Mr. Obama's political arm of the Democratic National Committee, has played a role in facilitating the protests in Wisconsin and across the country, but the organization has downplayed its role. Meanwhile, as the conflict over public sector workers spreads to other states, several of Mr. Obama's potential 2012 Republican challengers are speaking out in support of Gov. Walker.

Leaders of the House Progressive Caucus are calling on the president to go to Wisconsin and continue to voice his support for unions.

"Of course I'd like to hear more from President Obama," Caucus co-chair Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) said on MSNBC on Wednesday. " He's made some statements, he should get credit for that, we'd like to hear him make some more statements. I think President Obama should come to Wisconsin and stand with the workers."

On a conference call on Wednesday, co-chair Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said, "There's a bully pulpit there that the president has and I think it needs to be used."

Amy Dean, a labor activist and former AFL-CIO official in California, told the Wall Street Journal the president could do more as the leader of the Democratic Party.

"Everybody is looking to the president on this one," she said.

Protesters in Wisconsin said the same to the Huffington Post.

"He owes it to us," said Kathie Free, a retired Milwaukee public school social worker. "Obama was not put into office just by the big money. He was put into office by millions of poor and middle-class people who walk the neighborhoods, talking to neighbors, getting the votes, and that's how Obama got in, and he has to start remember how he got in. He'd better start working for the middle class and poor people."

Not everyone on the side of the unions, however, thinks the president's presence would benefit their cause. "I don't think the president's involvement in making this a Republican and Democrat issue would be particularly helpful at this point," said Andy Stern, a former president of the Service Employees International Union, the Wall Street Journal reports.

[dalleng]

Just say NO to Unions !

[2Dogs300]

you might as well say just say no to any kind of raise. No to affording a new car.No to a living wage. No to college for your kids. No to having a retirement.Yes to working part-time, with no benefits.

[simpleconservative]

"Just lies, just speeches" J. Wright Obama has a big problem here. He is the boss of 2 million federal employees who do not enjoy these "Collective bargaining rights."

[noloyalisti]

It's time for Obama and the rest of the Democrats to decide whether they are for the end of good jobs and the middle class. Will they support a few evil rich who don't care about America or life on earth or will the support the workers of America.

That is the beauty of this nationwide action that started in WI and will now spread to all 50 states. We force the corporatists Democrats to decide who lives and who dies in America. We already know where all the Repubblicans stand: with the multi-national giant corporations and evil filthy rich who want us all to pay for them.

[TheTrue2]

...I guess bringing to an end 12+ hours workday with straight time pay only and no benefits + sexual harrassment + institutionalized discrimination of the pre-union period does not qualify as helping more American make it to middle class in your world...more right winggers should partake in immolation because the "gods" they pray to are false gods that cannot deliver a sustainable "more and more" society in the world of the 21st Century...

[pragmatist1]

Unions, which represent the minority of the U.S. workforce are obsolete. The voters elected a governor to improve their state's finances. The Democrats lost their majority and now they're a bunch of slithering whiners. This is how Democrats react when they've lost and don't like something. Instead of doing their jobs, they run away like cowards. No public employee should be allowed to be in a union. Taxpayers pay their salaries and benefits. True, unions have a quid pro quo relationship with Democrat politicians, which is why both are running scared because they know that their smarmy relationship with each other is no longer viable and taxpayers all over are waking up and finally seeing them for what they really are. The Democrat politicians get millions in contributions from the unions and in return, the politicians payback the unions with lots of goodies.

[RuSeriousss]

Ignorance is bliss, huh? Public employees PAY taxes, too!!! Why do people like you think you are the only ones paying taxes??? I've had people who get huge tax refunds or get state/fed assistance yell at me like they have a right to do it and in the process I hear them say, "we pay taxes so you have to do what we ask." My response to that is, "what taxes did you pay when you get a refund? As far as I'm concerned, the taxes I pay is for you to get money for free!"

As for the parties: Republicans are greedy people whose interests are only for themselves. Democrats have a propensity to help everybody.. that's why Republicans don't like Democrats.

[010sonny]

Where to start whith such ignorance; Well I have philosophy that if you educate a retard how to fish he may eventually learn how to feed himself. That said; Suggest you start back to the root's of this issue. Read Up on the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt [R]. You may remember him as "speak softly and carry a big stick". Do you have any idea why he was known for that? Naw don't think so. Not you.From that you will be brought back to a world without unions. Legal one,s that is, for he was the one that made them legal! Before that no minimal wage. Corporation owned the houses and apartments and the stores that their labor worked. Seven days a week, children included. Education was in the back seat. LOL income was always just at the level for minimal existences. That was controlled by the company through rent and food prices." Oh Lord don't you call me for I can't go. I owe my soul to the company store"! Remember that song? Naw didn't think so. Do you know what Robber Barron's were or monopolies or aristocratic society? Naw you don't do you. It won't happen here. Ha. It is happening here. If you have the guts to really go back to 1904 and see for yourself where all of this has came from perhaps you will come back a tad wiser. Just for kicks, Teddy was the first one to propose Health Care! Won't happen here, here is documentary DVD you do not have to read they will show you.Its called American Outrage. What a community right here in the USA had to go through when corporatist wanted what they had. Check your local library or purchase one at www.firstrunfeatures.com cost $18.00 This is not for the weak minded so beware. We could go deeper but you have enough to keep your head spinning for some time while you try to sort through all this mush you have been calling intelligence. Naw you won't. You do not have the guts or the head for it. RIGHTY

[WorkingForaLiving]

Unions PROTECT ALL Americans. It is the unions who prevent companies from forcing you to work six days a week. It is the unions who prevent greedy companies from forcing you to work 60 hours a week without pay. It is unions who protect workers from greedy companies from dropping health insurance. It is unions who force companies to make sure the workplace is safe for you and your coworkers. It is unions who make sure that no matter your race or sex that you are paid the same amount as white males. It is unions who protect people from being fired because they stand up for themselves against abusive bosses. Unions protect all Americans, NOT just members. Unions set the bar that other companies must achieve.

Just because you are union does NOT mean you are lazy. It means that a greedy company cannot and will not be able to abuse its employees. As a union member, YOU write your contract and what the employees are and are not allowed to do.

Do unions usually cost more for companies? YES!!! Because YOU the employee deserve a living a wage. A wage where you can keep a roof over your head, food on your table and protection from health care emergencies. If it was up to greedy companies they would have you living in homeless shelters and surviving on food banks. Just look at employees at Walmart...they are paid so little..they have to apply for the federally funded state health insurance for their families!! If the money does not go to union workers...it would just go to the rich and make them richer. (The top 1% of Americans control 24% of all money in the USA...twice what it was in 1980...the rich are filthy rich and the middle class is screwed because there is no one protecting them. And the rich are using their money in 503 groups with fancy names, like Education Reform Now etc) to make public employees and unions look like evil greedy people. Who is greedy a billionaire who won't give his employees health insurance or a public employee making 45K and demanding health insurance for their family?

If your company made a profit (70% of S&P 500 companies beat expectations and companies are hoarding billions in cash. Health insurance companies made RECORD profits last year and that was in the middle of a recession!!) If your company made a profit and they did NOT give you a raise (above inflation) or told you that you were "lucky" to have a job....then that company is ABUSING YOU! Stop letting greedy billionaires abuse you...stand up for yourself. You have a voice. You have a right. You have a right to feed your family. You have a right to protect your children's health. You must learn to fight for yourself against the greed of corporations.

You must stand up for yourself...support unions and become part of the only organization that can protect you and your family from greedy and abusive billionaires. It is time to act...ANYONE can join and form their own union (http://www.aflcio.org) It is time to protect yourself and your family. Unionize!!!

[TheTrue2]

Organized labor has played an important role in helping create a middle class in America. Capitalism and the free market operates by creating economic classes under the best of conditions, like we have in our country. The right to own resources and wealth for your own benefit when it is corrupted with an addiction to own and keep for yourself more and more leaves others in our society wanting to meet their basic necessities. Organized labor is the best way for people who do not have wealth and power to even out the negotiation playing field with the rich man. It is a fact today that our government law making process defends the interest of the rich over working americans. Denying working americans the right to negotiate for benefis when the cost of Healthcare and retirement is out of reach for 30 millions americans or more only makes a bad situation worse. Working americans everywhere need to organize and demand justice. We have witness three major events that affects the quality of life of every working american in our country::

1. No reduction of healthcare cost from the Healthcare Industry even though americans both rich and poor are having difficulties providing or paying for this essential service.

2. Oil prices sky rocketing by international events created by our foreign policy of democratization to "make our country safer".

3. No real effective immigration policy to reduce the growth of our population to more sustainable levels for the long haul.

The silent majority of American need to take notice and speak out for justice.

[dfobare]

Unions didn't create the middle class. It drains the middle class for the benefit of its members.

Regarding your action list; if your members considered self-immolation that would be a start towards a more "sustainable" population.

[Zann-Zel]

"If American workers are being denied their right to organize when I'm in the White House, I will put on a comfortable pair of shoes and I will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States."
---------------
Come on Obama - you could at least make an appearance in those comofortable shoes!

Those Millionaire Mobster Republicans in Wiconsin are ********! What they are doing is NOT good for this country! THey need to be Stopped!!!

[dalleng]

No they don't. The unions need to be busted .

[RealWorldNow]

It's interesting that no one makes the connection to all the known mob ties to the unions, countless convictions in the past linking union bosses to the mob. Crickets.......

700 million dollars in political spending by the unions in the last two election cycles! That's money involuntarily taken from the membership and spent without consent from the members. Isn't that money that would help those families?

[realist51]

and what did the mob ties with republicans donate to the cause for them in just this last cycle? and check the post above about what unions have to do to donate money.

[CarloCaraluzzo]

Hey, are unions putting guns to members heads? I have been a member of a Union for many years and no one ever forced me to pay my freaking membership dues. And money is donated to the DNC simply because there are no republicans who support WORKERS rights. Why would the DNC give money to the people who make it a point to support big business agenda over the rights of the workers? Most Unions are composed of blue color workers who make under $75,000 a year. Please explain to me, and Im waiting with bated breath, exactly what the RNC has done for THAT demographic in the last 30 years?
No Union member is forced to pay dues. Dues are what support the running of the organization and supports the members interests. Maybe if, instead of trying to strip workers rights Republicans defended them, they might actually get the workers support.
What a novel concept.

[RealWorldNow]

Another broken promise added to the dung heap.