Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Any presidential candidate seeking AFL-CIO support must oppose fast-track authority for President Obama’s major trade deal, the group’s president said on Tuesday.
“There’s no middle ground,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a brief speech at the group’s headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C., calling the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal the latest example of a trade approach “that, starting with [the North American Free Trade Agreement], was designed to drive wages down” and enrich corporations.
Union members are tired of turning out “only to have their candidate of choice turn a back to the policies” the labor movement supports, Trumka said — a possible reference to Obama.
Trade is driving a wedge through the Democratic Party, with liberals in open revolt and Obama lambasting them for it. Hillary Clinton has been noncommittal on TPP, and Martin O’Malley has been emboldened by the divide, attacking Clinton openly over it — a major rarity.
Most immediately, the speech serves as a warning to Clinton. Labor has traditionally supplied turnout and pro-working-class bona fides to Democrats in almost every major election, and a schism between the AFL-CIO and the party’s de facto nominee would be a big deal for Democrats.
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