It seems that President Obama has labor union problem. As unlikely as it sounds, the candidate who was pushed over the top by several labor unions in 2008 was on opposite sides of the Arkansas democratic primary less than two years later.
After the primary dust settled, both sides had shots to fire across the bow warning of another conflict. The White House said “Organized labor just flushed $10 million of their members’ money down the toilet on a pointless exercise” while AFL-CIO spokesman Eddie Vale responds that “labor isn’t an arm of the Democratic Party.”
Why the conflict between the Obama White House and labor unions? Simply put, President Obama has not done a good job in putting together policy initiatives to lower unemployment or to create jobs. He has even failed at getting out of the way of the market to create jobs itself. The union leaders, and their members, want the President to focus on jobs… which is what I have been saying from day 1 of his presidency.
Do I see labor unions jumping the shark and supporting Republican candidates in the mid-terms in November? Probably not. If Obama keeps ignoring job recovery and further alienates labor unions, they might seek to find another candidate to support in 2012, maybe even a Republican.
Faculty, Department of Political Science, Towson University. Graduate from Liberty University Seminary.