flapjack, what do you think of big labors one sided use of union dues?
AFL-CIO: 'We Are Going to Run This Election'
UPI
Saturday, Sept. 2, 2000
newsmax.com
WASHINGTON - AFL-CIO President John Sweeney estimates his organization will spend between $40 million and $45 million this election cycle to try to get Al Gore elected president, win back the House for Democrats and influence legislation, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
He said Big Labor's paramount goal was to "strengthen Social Security and Medicare." But it is in hot opposition to Texas Gov. George W. Bush's reform proposal to let workers privately invest some of their payroll taxes, the paper said Wednesday.
"We are going to run this election around our issues," Sweeney vowed, citing Social Security, health care and prescription drugs, education and fair trade.
Sweeney said in his annual pre-Labor Day news conference that unions learned their lesson in 1994: that when their members stayed away from the polls, "Newt Gingrich got control" of the House.
In 1994, union members made up only 13 percent of the electorate, and Democrats lost the House and the Senate. Two years later, union members made up nearly a fourth of the electorate, and Democrats picked up seats. This year the AFL-CIO has 70 field representatives concentrating on 71 House races, the Post-Gazette reported.
Membership increased 265,000 in 1999, Sweeney said.
Skittish about detailing how much gets spent for what in an election year, Sweeney stressed that "almost none" of its money will go directly to candidates and that "we'll be outspent 11-to-1 by big business. We'll never match the money being spent by the opposition." |
