Organized labor is less than enamored with many of the Obama adminstration's actions on some issues and their inaction on many other issues:
"There's no question that the Obama administration has done many things that have helped working people and that have been positive for the labor movement," Podhorzer said. "But on the other hand, this is the Democratic Party; it was elected on a platform to do much, much, much, much more."
AFL-CIO: Labor will stand by Obama
And the AFL-CIO opposes the Obama administration's job killing trade deals:
They argue the deals will harm an economy still struggling to create jobs amid a fragile economic recovery.
“We'll be talking to every legislator out there about the trade deals,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Friday.
The AFL-CIO will hold more than 450 events across the country this month where the deals will be discussed, and it has started a petition “urging politicians to bring the same urgency to the jobs crisis that they brought to the politically manufactured crisis over the deficit,” Trumka said.
The fight over the agreements is splitting President Obama from unions and other liberal groups at a time when there is already tension between the White House and the left over the debt-ceiling deal.
Labor Ramps Up Effort to Stop Trade Deals
But they also support Obama's re-election:
Organized labor won't sit out President Obama's reelection campaign and let a Republican win the presidency, the AFL-CIO's political director said Wednesday.
Despite the frustration labor activists have expressed toward the administration for the deals it has cut with congressional Republicans, Obama still provides a better alternative to a potential Republican president, said Michael Podhorzer, the labor federation's top politics officer.
snip
"I don't think that the labor movement will be on the sidelines with President Obama," he said in a sit-down interview with The Hill Wednesday.
Podhorzer said that the union is likely to announce this fall that it's creating a so-called "super PAC" that can spend and receive unlimited amounts of campaign donations. Podhorzer said the labor federation has been limited by election laws to contacting just its own members but with a super PAC, the AFL-CIO can expand its outreach to non-union voters as well.
AFL-CIO: Labor will stand by Obama
You can support President Obama's policies when they're right, fight them when they're wrong, and support his re-election as part of anti-Republican extremism coalition. It works for me.
Like Nancy Pelosi, I will not support bad policies:
Pelosi pushes back against Obama-backed free-trade agreements
By Mike Lillis - 08/03/11 03:07 PM ET
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi pushed back Wednesday against several pending free-trade agreements championed by President Obama.
The California Democrat signaled doubts that looming trade deals with South Korea, Panama and Colombia would benefit U.S. workers. President Obama on Tuesday called on Congress to approve the deals, which he and Republicans argue would create jobs.
“The White House may support it, but the Congress may have a different view,” Pelosi warned on MSNBC.
During a lengthy interview, MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell suggested that the long-delayed trade pacts “could have produced more jobs.”
Pelosi responded, “Well, that's debatable.”
http://thehill.com/...