In an interview with Bloomberg last week, AFL-CIO president Rich Trumka sounds like he’s visiting from another space-time continuum. To start, Trumka claims that with one foot in the grave and the other on soft soil, union leaders are so disenchanted with Democrats in general and Barack Obama in particular they may just withhold financial backing for Democrats in next year’s elections. And then what. Knock doors for Tim Pawlenty? He then went on to confound Earth-bound logic by expressing labor’s dissatisfaction with the Obama NLRB! Apparently, even with the Board making two or three union beholdin’ decisions a week, precedent isn’t overturning fast enough in Trumka’s view. “Many unions have almost given up on the NLRB because it’s so fraught with delays.” (emphasis on the “almost”) He then called on the Board to permit quicker union elections. Of course. Finally Trumka carped about the “distraction” and “hysteria” surrounding our 14.3 trillion dollar national debt, calling for even more of it to spend on infrastructure projects, “green jobs” and more state aid. Defying the laws of economic physics, more debt would magically end the recession through the miracle of government job creation. He’d also like to see the U.S. become more like European nations (Greece pops to mind) that provide pensions and health care for all citizens. Trumka added he doesn’t mind if conservatives call that socialism. “Being called a socialist is a step up for me.” From what he didn’t say.
