AFL-CIO and Unite Here on Lou Dobbs

Run time: 05:15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFFDZOCwG1E   Posted on YouTube: September 19, 2007 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: November 13, 2007 By DU Member: Omaha Steve Views on DU: 456

 

by James Parks, Nov 12, 2007

Kudos to the non-partisan Drum Major Institute for Public Policy (DMI) for its great work in keeping us informed about what Congress is doing to help, and hurt, the middle class. Since 2003, DMI has issued annual scorecards analyzing the impact of legislation on America’s middle class and evaluating members of Congress based on their votes on this legislation.

The organization’s new website, www.themiddleclass.org, is updated throughout the year with analyses of current legislation and shows you how your representatives and senators voted.

The site also features discussions of issues critical to the middle class. For example, AFL-CIO Policy Director Thea Lee and UNITE HERE President Bruce Raynor are shown during a CNN interview, where they make the point that ensuring immigrant workers have the freedom to join unions protects the rights of all workers. (See video.)

As Lee says:

We have to make sure our labor laws are working to protect the rights of workers. They have to have the right to organize a union and we can’t allow employers to use their status against them to bust unions and fight against any decent increase in wages and health care.

By the way, DMI takes its name from a quote by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who said, of the words he wanted spoken at his funeral:

If you want to say I was a drum major, say I was a drum major for justice.