Trumka: Labor Movement is Independent or Something

This latest razzle-dazzle comes courtesy of a guy who basically lives at the White House and is one of Obama's economic advisers. He claims to be leading a hard left movement that's not beholden to any party.

Sure.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will say Friday that workers want an “independent” labor movement designed to help the working class, not a specific party or candidate.

In a speech at the National Press Club, the head of the nation’s largest labor federation will say that unions intend to focus their 2012 political efforts not based on lawmakers’ party affiliation but rather their stance on issues near and dear to labor.

“We are looking hard at how we work in the nation’s political arena. We have listened hard, and what workers want is an independent labor movement that builds the power of working people — in the workplace and in political life,” Trumka will say, according to excerpts of his remarks. “Our role is not to build the power of a political party or a candidate. It is to improve the lives of working families and strengthen our country.”

Yes, they have nothing to do with any particular party or candidate.

One thing must be said of President Obama -- he gives good value in return for the hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions he got from the nation's labor movement. Unions spent an estimated $200 million electing Obama and re-electing Democratic majorities in Congress in 2008. Union officials ought to be ecstatic with Obama's performance since then because he has delivered everything he promised the unions, and more. Obama's largesse is all the more amazing when it is remembered that unions represent fewer than 7 percent of all private-sector workers.

After his speech today Trumka will be auctioning off a bridge spanning Manhattan and Brooklyn. It comes cheap.

A reminder how "independent" this socialist swine is:



Update: More from Ed Morrissey.