Big Labor is President Obama’s best friend and worst enemy. In the year ahead, hoping to win back independent voters, Obama likely will recast his administration as centrist and responsive to an electorate anxious about spiraling budget deficits. At the same time, he will struggle to meet the demands of the powerful unions that got him elected. Given the mood (and needs) of the country, that will not be easy.
On nearly every front, organized labor stands squarely in the way of necessary change — change that the White House has endorsed. Whether it is adding jobs, improving our nation’s ailing public school system, rebuilding our infrastructure or tackling our long-term entitlement programs, unions continue to balk at the reforms and initiatives so necessary to our future.
One of the president’s most ambitious job-creating programs is to double our exports. In the face of mounting global competition, this requires expanding our bilateral trade agreements, such as the one just renegotiated with South Korea. When that treaty was first signed in 2007, labor unions balked, arguing that Korean automakers made out like bandits. The tweaked agreement has won over the UAW, but the AFL-CIO has now entered the fray, opposing the measure and making passage in Congress that much more difficult.
Meanwhile, pending trade deals with Colombia and Panama are being held hostage by Big Labor. As an editorial in The Wall Street Journal says, the pact with Colombia tilts in favor of U.S. exports and is a sure win-win for the U.S. goods from Colombia, which are already allowed into the U.S. duty-free; under the agreement it is tariffs on U.S. exports that will be reduced as the Colombian government seeks to free up its economy. Labor leaders in the U.S. apparently oppose the pact because their brethren in Colombia are not always treated well. In other words, our union bosses are willing to sacrifice trade and U.S. jobs on the altar of the international labor movement. That’s bad news.
Robert Borosage is the co-director of Campaign for America’s Future, a progressive think tank that sings in harmony with organized labor. He recently wrote a blog for Huffington Post in which he chastised President Obama for attempting to rebuild his relationship with the business community. Borosage’s strategy for expanding exports is to put “pressure on China, Germany, Japan and the surplus nations” instead of brokering trade agreements. This is a common cry from the left but ignores reality. These countries are out-gunning us. “Pressuring” these nations is as fanciful as Eli Manning demanding a do-over of his calamitous last-play loss to the Eagles. These “surplus” nations do not rely exclusively on undervalued currencies or cheap labor; they also have been extremely aggressive in lining up trade arrangements and promoting their corporate community.
Mr. Borosage correctly laments that “America is literally falling apart.” He blames low tax rates on the wealthy for undermining infrastructure replenishment. He might instead want to contact the leadership of a public workers’ union in California that is suing to stop construction on a $1 billion new highway promising to create 13,000 jobs over the next 30 years.
The road to the Golden Gate Bridge is being funded through a private-public partnership — an approach increasingly in vogue as a way to leverage the overburdened resources of states and municipalities. A union called Professional Engineers in California Government objects to the project because it is partly funded by foreign investors and some of the design work has gone to non-U.S. firms. In other words, they would rather not get the project built than allow the use of non-union labor. This opposition is likely to arise elsewhere; California is hardly the only state in trouble and seeking private funding to meet its needs.
Similarly, Obama’s close ties to Big Labor may undermine his quest for education reform. Fixing our schools is a popular (and bipartisan) mission. Americans are unhappy that our youngsters’ verbal and math skills consistently rank below those of other nations. Americans are beginning to connect the failures of our schools with the self-protecting power wielded by our teachers’ unions. The popular movie “Waiting for Superman” portrayed union-backed labor rules as placing the needs of teachers above those of children. Also, some very visible confrontations in beleaguered states, such as New Jersey, have highlighted the outsized demands of union leaders.
President Obama, through Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, has taken first steps in this arena. Duncan initiated Race to the Top, the program that trades federal support for tough reforms requiring, among other things, greater teacher accountability. Unhappily, the teachers’ unions — the single biggest source of funding for Democratic candidates in 2010 and in 2008 the third largest contributor to Obama — have shown little appetite for compromise. In Texas the local AFT opposed the state’s ambition to win a Race to the Top grant, citing the productivity-enhancing requirements attached to the awards. Unions in Colorado and Wyoming also resisted participation.
In addition to facing off against teachers’ unions, Obama will also confront Big Labor opposition as he tackles Social Security and Medicare. Any serious discussion about reducing our budget deficit will have to include reining in these giant entitlement programs, considered sacrosanct by union leaders. Andy Stern, former head of the SEIU, recently provided the fifth vote that torpedoed the ability of the president’s deficit commission to send its plan to Congress. The main sticking point was the commission’s ambition to trim Social Security benefits — not to current recipients but to future retirees.
President Obama will face many challenges as he pursues a second term. None may be tougher than doing what’s right for the country, while continuing to please his pals in Big Labor.
