The outcome of the November 6 election is, for the most part, welcome news for working people. The anti-worker Romney-Ryan presidential ticket was defeated, and anti-labor Republicans were beaten in a number of key Senate races, giving the Democrats an enlarged majority in the U.S. Senate. Some of the winners - including Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts and Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin - look like they will be strong supporters of working-class issues, and team up with proven friends of UE such as Vermont's Independent Senator Bernie Sanders - who easily cruised to victory with over 71 percent of the vote - and Ohio's Senator Sherrod Brown, who prevailed despite a $30 million barrage of corporate-funded attack ads directed against him.
The election was a defeat for right-wing "super PACs", including those run by the Koch brothers and Karl Rove, that poured millions of corporate dollars into dishonest negative ads in the presidential, Senate and other races. It was a defeat for millionaires trying to buy Senate seats, such as wrestling tycoon Linda McMahon in Connecticut and Pennsylvania's Tom Smith, who got rich running unsafe coal mines. Working class voters also overcame Republican voter suppression tactics in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida and other states.
Delegates to the UE Convention in September 2011 adopted a political action resolution and policy action report that set as priorities pushing back against the "war on working people", and in particular, defending threatened U.S. Senate seats in UE states. In the past month, the union published flyers for six close Senate races - Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and Massachusetts. UE members mobilized and won victories in each of those races. Over the past few months, a number of UE locals registered members to vote, distributed UE election leaflets, and helped mobilize to get out the vote. Besides adding to the vote totals for President Obama and for Democratic Senate and House candidates, the efforts of UE members helped secure some important state and local victories.
In Iowa, the hard work of UE Locals 893, 896 and other Iowa locals succeeded in blocking a Republican takeover of the state senate, which would have enabled the Republican governor to push through Wisconsin-style union-busting legislation. Besides keeping control of the state senate, Iowa Democrats gained seats in the state house of representatives, but fell short of a majority there. We are pleased to see that UE Local 234 President Bob South won reelection to a third term in the Vermont house of representatives. In California, UE locals are celebrating the defeat of Proposition 32, an anti-labor statewide referendum, and the passage of propositions to raise taxes on the wealthy and big business.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment in the national election is that the U.S. House of Representatives remains in the hands of extremist anti-labor Republicans. We expect that the reactionary House majority will continue to block legislation to create jobs, and that for the next two years at least, no positive legislation for improving the rights and conditions of working people is likely to make it through Congress. Other setbacks include the loss of some key allies in the West Virginia legislature, and the election of an anti-union North Carolina governor.
CHALLENGES AHEAD
One of our greatest worries in the weeks ahead is that President Obama and Senate Democrats will resume their quest for a bipartisan "Grand Bargain" on fiscal matters. The Democrats have displayed a dangerous inclination to seek a deficit-reduction compromise in which they agree to cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other vital domestic programs, in exchange for Republicans consenting to some modest tax increases on the rich. Such a "Grand Bargain" would be a raw deal for working people, seniors and the country. Obama and the Democrats need to be reminded that they were elected to protect Social Security and Medicare from Republican attacks, not to agree to "compromise" cuts. As Sen. Bernie Sanders has said, "We cannot and must not balance the budget on the backs of the elderly by cutting Social Security and Medicare or Medicaid, or cutting back programs that the most vulnerable people in this country need. There are ways to do deficit reduction by asking the wealthiest people and largest corporations to start paying their fair share of taxes."
We call upon all UE locals to remain on high alert, ready to quickly mobilize our members for whatever action is needed, in solidarity with other organizations, to stop a bad bipartisan budget deal that cuts these programs. In the months ahead, we will need to continue to apply "street heat" for a real jobs program and action on workers' rights and immigrant rights.
It is of more than symbolic importance that, in the vote count on election night, it was the working people of Ohio who put the Obama-Biden ticket over the top and ensured the defeat of Romney-Ryan. One year ago, the labor movement of Ohio won one of the most important electoral victories of our times, with UE locals playing an active role. By an overwhelming majority in a statewide referendum, the voters of Ohio repealed an anti-union bill and restored the rights of public employees to organize, bargain and when necessary, to strike. That vote was not about parties, personalities or candidates - it was purely about the issue of workers' rights, and mobilizing the solidarity of working people to secure those rights.
UE's approach to political action has always focused on issues and on building the working-class movement, independent of parties and politicians. We believe that's the way forward for working people today.
BRUCE J. KLIPPLE
General President
ANDREW DINKELAKER
General Secretary-Treasurer
ROBERT B. KINGSLEY
Director of Organization