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Capital & Mainis an award-winning publication that reports from California on economic, political, and social issues.The American Prospectis co-publishing this piece.

The good news for those celebrating Labor Day this year is that unions are still legal. Other than that, the American labor movement continues to absorb the damage brought on by a string of rulings from the Supreme Court and a hostile National Labor Relations Board, along with endless lawsuits, courtesy of a well-funded right to work movement. Call the situation Taft-Hartley by a thousand cuts.

Not surprisingly, most unions are supporting the Democratic presidential candidate with an unprecedented urgency. Not only was Joe Biden's acceptance speech the first in decades to even mention the word union in any positive sense, but Biden also spoke tantalizingly of an America reinvigorated by newly-empowered unions.

That had sounded like a real possibility more than a decade ago, when then-Vice President Biden led the effort to pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) that would have allowed workers at a company to choose a union simply by signing cards that expressed their desire to form a union local and bargain with management for a contract. EFCA fizzled in the Senate but has since been superseded by the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act), which shares a desire for card check organizing protections and was passed by the Democrat-held House this year. Labor leaders, including the AFL-CIO's executive vice president, Tefere Gebre, are pushing hard for the PRO Act's ultimate passage by the Senate and, presumably, a President Biden signature.

Capital & Main spoke to Gebre to find out the state of the unions on this years Labor Day and where he sees them in this momentous election year. As a teenager Gebre, who speaks in a rapid-fire staccato, fled his native Ethiopia to come to America after walking 93 days through a Sudanese desert. He arrived in Los Angeles and quickly became acquainted with his new country's racial dynamics. He says that while commuting to Cal Poly Pomona from L.A., he was pulled over by police no fewer than 22 times.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Capital & Main: Where do you see the labor movement at this rather historic moment?

Tefere Gebre: It has been a really, really uplifting time. We have come a long way from the air traffic controllers going on a strike and being fired to teachers in ruby red West Virginia saying, "Enough is enough," and going on a strike and getting everything they wanted.

Given what we know about congressional gridlock, what do you think organized labors practical wish list should be if Joe Biden becomes president?

Gebre: The 2020 platform of the Democratic Party is the most pro-labor it has ever been. But the onus is on us [to make sure that] once we get him elected, we don't get bought off by coffee at the White House. Bought off by Air Force One rides. That we ask for concrete change in the rules that apply to workers. It's not platitudes that we're looking for. We're asking for changing the laws and leveling the balance of power in this country that's so tilted towards corporations and the billionaire class.

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Capital & Main: If you mean card-checking union elections, that didnt get very far in 2009 under the Democrats.

Gebre: We can get the PRO Act through the House. We need a Senate that also would pass it. That means amending the rules of the filibuster. Democracy functions with 50 plus one, but if a senator just files for filibuster everything is killed. Everything dies. A senator should not have the same ability to block legislation when they have less than a million people in their state, as a senator from California, right? In order to pass the PRO Act, in order to get a Green New Deal and so many other things, we have to have senators who are willing and gutsy enough to actually reform the Senate. The Republicans appoint Supreme Court justices with 51 votes. If that's good enough for them, 51 votes should be enough for passing the PRO Act.

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Capital & Main: Do you see any problems, though, with trade policies in a Biden administration?

Gebre: Were not against trade. The labor movement should embrace trade. We live in a global economy. The measure of [whether] a Biden administration is any different from the Clinton administration, from the Obama administration, is in how many Wall Street people will be in the White House. That is the real key. Who would be his trade ambassador? Ambassadors for trade and for trade negotiations, in previous administrations, Republican and Democrat, they all came from Goldman Sachs, Wall Street. Workers just want to be at the table, negotiating.

Capital & Main: What is the biggest bone in labor's throat right now? Is it the Supreme Courts Janus ruling? The courts decisions leading up to Janus? The National Labor Relations Board?

Gebre: I wouldn't say it's Janus we have lost less than a half percent of membership because of Janus. I would say it's how rules are set up, [its about] money and politics, what the NLRB does. Employers are allowed to break the rules without any kind of penalty on them. If we don't fix our democracy entirely, taking money out of politics, one man one vote, those kinds of things, we're still going to find ourselves in trouble. At the end of the day, it's about power.

Capital & Main: Foreign-born workers were so vital to the labor movement in the 1930s can immigrants flip the script again for union growth?

Gebre: They are. We have unions right now who would crumble if it was not for immigrant workers. That's why the issue of immigration reform, the issue of criminal justice reform, the issue of social justice in this country has to be on the tip of the spear of the labor movement in everything we do. Because if we don't take care of that, we are actually dying out.

Capital & Main: In news stories from swing states, working people always seem to be complaining about Trump, but then at the end of their interviews, they say they're still going to vote for him in November. Why?

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Gebre: For 40 years, we have told our members in the Midwest, in the Rust Belt states, Unfair trade agreements are killing you. We have been mobilizing our members against draconian trade agreements. That was a void created by our own people, by Democrats, that Donald Trump filled. Donald Trump used all of those issues against Hillary Clinton.

We elected Democrat after Democrat after Democrat, and things never changed for workers. Sooner or later they're just going to say, "I'm going to try something new." In 2016, Donald Trump was that something new.

Capital & Main: Do you worry that attacks against police unions may have unintended consequences that they could be used to attack unions in general?

Gebre: Thats something that we have to deal with. On the one hand, as a labor leader, I would never say any worker does not deserve a union, including police. And you're talking to someone who has had a cop put a gun in my mouth.

That being said, bargaining agreements should not be shields for killers. About 13 of our international unions, one way or another, represent law enforcement officers. We are engaging with those unions in a very, very deep conversation about how we bring change to them, how we become a catalyst for that change to happen.

[AFL-CIO] President [Richard] Trumka just created a racial justice task force, which I'm privileged to serve on. We have police officers themselves sitting on that task force. [Our] job is to actually get to the bottom of racial inequality in this country. That task force has been very vocal, saying that its job is not only about the police the police are there to police what society created. The median wealth of a white American household is about $134,000. The average wealth of an African American is $11,000. Until you fix that, it doesn't matter how many precincts of police departments you have fixed -- you will never get to the bottom of it.

Capital & Main: Every four years there seems to be talk that labor should not ally itself with any one party, because by doing so it gives up leverage with the Democrats. Does forming a Labor Party make sense to you?

Gebre: We already have a Labor Party. I long for the day [when] we would have two parties that compete for our attention. Unfortunately, the Republican Party has no interest in even addressing workers issues. That leaves us with no other option than to naturally do what we do with the Democratic Party.

The problem I don't know if you'd quote me on this or not, but it's Corporate Party A and Corporate Party B. Even if we put about 98 percent of our resources into the Democratic Party, at the end of the day we end up being less than 30 percent of the resources they need to structurally win an election or be competitive in an election.

The other 70 percent comes from the same resource that Republicans get their money -- corporations. Part of our goal has to be, in addition to advocating for one man one vote, we have to find a way to amend or get rid of Citizens United, to take money out of politics.

Capital & Main: Regardless of who wins November 3, what will be your movements number one goal on November 4?

Gebre: I think you already know I'm an immigrant. I came to this country risking my life because I believed in that shiny house on the hill in that place of liberty, that if you apply yourself, you can make yourself whatever you want to be if you are an American. Most of that works for me. But I'm worried. I don't know if we still have that country anymore. When we are locking kids in cages and we are making immigrants others, we become an ordinary country instead of the hope and aspiration of the best and the brightest in the world.

When I hear the national anthem -- the land of the free and the home of the brave -- I don't see soldiers. I don't see fighter jets flying or anything. I see the brave immigrants, the brave people around the world who want to apply themselves, wanting to be free by coming to this country.

If we close that door, we're not an exceptional nation anymore. That worries the hell out of me. Empires fall, and that could be the vehicle that makes this empire fall.

Go here to read the rest:
State of the Unions 2020 - The American Prospect

Young Latinos are being pushed to vote in the upcoming election by the protests that have gripped the country throughout the summer over the fight for racial justice, according to new data from a national survey of Latino voters between the ages of 18 and 34.

The survey, conducted by Telemundo and BuzzFeed News earlier this summer, also found that young Latinos are motivated by the coronavirus pandemic's outsize influence on their community.

The countrys renewed push for racial justice after the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the effects of the pandemic, and immigration reform have pushed young Latino voters to become engaged in the upcoming election, according to the survey.

The protests that have taken place across the country have become a focal point of the presidential race. The Republican National Convention heavily featured segments against widespread demonstrations and in favor of law and order, including an address from a Missouri couple who had been charged with unlawful use of a weapon after aiming guns at a group of protesters in their neighborhood. President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden both visited Kenosha, Wisconsin, last week after protests erupted following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

According to the survey, 55.8% of young Latino voters said theyd actively participated in racial equality or Black Lives Matter movements by protesting or boycotting, and half of young Latino people said protests across the country have motivated them to vote in the upcoming election. Racial and ethnic social equality motivates 62.7% of young Latino voters, according to the survey and 57% said reducing police brutality has pushed them to turn out for the election.

Racial and ethnic social equality was identified as the most important social or political issue for their generation by a majority of the Latino voters, with 16.6% identifying it as the top overall issue.

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed racial inequities in how communities across the country are affected by its consequences, and its motivating Latino voters ahead of the general election. Just 24.6% of young Latino voters somewhat or strongly approve of the presidents response to the pandemic, compared to 35.6% of young non-Latino voters.

In the survey, 41.1% of Latino voters indicated that the pandemic has strongly motivated them to vote in the upcoming election. Part of that motivation comes from their own experiences: 13% of Latino voters said they have worked in a high-risk job without enough protection over the course of the pandemic, compared to 11.3% of non-Latino voters. And 12.5% of Latino people said that they had lost their job because of the coronavirus, compared to 10.3% of young non-Latino people.

The upcoming election has created conflicting feelings for many young Latino voters, with wide support for Biden matching a belief that Trump will ultimately win. The survey found that 53% of young Latino Biden supporters believe hell win the election, compared to the 52% of young Latino Trump supporters who believe that Trump will win.

While 60% of young Latino voters say they are supporting Bidens campaign, recent polling has shown the former vice president lagging behind with Latinos overall compared to where Hillary Clinton was in 2016. A recent poll from Equis Research, which surveyed 1,081 Latinos in Florida, found that while Biden led Trump 53% to 37% among Latino voters, Biden was still behind where Clinton performed, according to 2016 exit polling from CNN.

Despite the Biden campaigns lagging performance among Latino voters in Florida compared to Clintons 2016 performance, 75.3% of young Latino voters surveyed in the TelemundoBuzzFeed News poll indicated that they believe it is more important to vote in this election than the 2016 election.

The survey questioned 638 people who identified as Latino and 685 non-Latino people between the ages of 18 and 34. It was conducted from June 5 to June 22.

Originally posted here:
Young Latino Voters Say The Fight For Racial Justice Is Pushing Them To Vote In November - BuzzFeed News

It is no secret that many progressives are not exactly enthusiastic about supporting Joe Biden in the upcoming election. To be sure, Biden has staked out a position firmly on the partys moderate wing during his almost 50 years of public service. However, often overlooked by both the media and voters alike during the frenzied circus that is an American presidential election is the importance of presidential appointees in shaping the administrations agenda.

In fact, Cabinet members and other executive branch appointees often exert substantial influence over executive branch policies. One need only observe the chaos wrought by Trump-appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to understand the power wielded even by less prominent appointees. But just as Trump has the ability to appoint dangerous and unqualified sycophants to the executive branch, a President Biden would be able to right many of the dangerous actions taken by Trump Cabinet members.

Fortunately for progressives, if history is any guide, many of Bidens Cabinet appointees will be substantially more left-wing than the candidate himself. Neither of the partys past two presidents, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, were exactly darlings of the left. However, despite hailing from the partys moderate wing, both appointed influential progressive figures to key Cabinet positions.

Bill Clinton was the figurehead of the New Democrats, a centrist faction of the Democratic Party that sought to move the party in a more moderate direction. Despite this, many of Clintons Cabinet appointees were significantly to his left. One example was Robert Reich, the Secretary of Labor during Clintons first term. Reich was an early advocate of a universal basic income, and successfully pushed for a raise to the federal minimum wage while in office. Since leaving office he has been a voice for progressive labor reform and (surprise!) endorsed Bernie Sanders for president in 2016 and 2020.

Another progressive Clinton administration official was Carol Browner, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator for the entirety of his eight years in office. She was a strong advocate for reducing air pollution, and almost single-handedly fought against opposition from Congress and White House economic advisors to convince Clinton to significantly tighten restrictions on permissible levels of ground-level ozone. For this achievement, which led to dramatically reduced smog levels in U.S. cities, she was dubbed the Queen of Clean Air by Time Magazine. She was also the first EPA director to take direct action to reduce carbon emissions and has been a vocal proponent of the Green New Deal.

The Obama administration also contained prominent progressives, the most notable being Julian Castro, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). While at HUD, Castro took significant steps to finally fully implement the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which prevents discrimination in the sale or rental of homes, and made ending homelessness a top priority. Castro later ran for president on a bold progressive platform emphasizing comprehensive immigration reform before eventually endorsing Elizabeth Warren.

So, what will a Biden Cabinet look like? It will certainly contain its fair share of moderates. But if Bill Clintons administration contained progressives at a time when they made up a much smaller portion of his constituency, they will likely be even more heavily represented in Bidens Cabinet. This is evidenced by Bidens transition team itself, which includes Julie Siegal, a senior Elizabeth Warren advisor, and Gautam Raghavan, chief of staff to Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Senator Warren herself, a leader of the progressive wing of the party, has been described as a virtual lock for a Cabinet position if she wants one. Her potential selection as Treasury Secretary would give her significant influence in the White House, with Biden likely delegating to her primary responsibility for financial and economic policy, according to one research firm. While this would be cause for consternation on Wall Street, it would be a welcome change for many progressives who have been calling for increased financial regulation for years.

Other potential administration officials could do much to advance the policy goals of the progressive movement without either of its preferred candidates at the top of the ticket. Washington Governor Jay Inslee, who made climate change the central issue of his 2020 presidential campaign, would be a breath of fresh air after the current EPA Administrator, Andrew Wheeler, who was a coal lobbyist before taking office. Appointing an Attorney General like Vanita Gupta, the former head of the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division and staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), would be a similarly welcome departure from the demagoguery of William Barr and show the Biden Justice Departments commitment to voting rights reform and upholding civil liberties.

In sum, there is much for progressives to look forward to in a potential Biden administration. Indeed, these potential picks are evidence of the success of working within the Democratic party to achieve progressive goals rather than rejecting the party. The successful presidential bids of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren allowed them and their staffs to influence the future Biden administration precisely because they proved they represented a substantial portion of the partys voter base. A progressive Cabinet member will be in a substantially better position to influence policy than a failed third-party candidate. And, until Democrats nominate a progressive candidate, it will give the movement something to get excited about: a voice.

More here:
Progressives should be heartened by a Biden cabinet - Miscellany News

Senator Kamala Harris is Joe Bidens pick for vice president. The vice president could play amore important role on immigration than in prior presidencies, so its important to understand Sen. Harriss plans on this issue. From alibertarian perspective, legalizing the act of crossing borders should be the main focus of immigration reform, not merely legalizing those who have already done so. While she generally agrees with making legal immigration easier, Sen. Harris clearly disagrees with the libertarian prioritization of the issue.

Overall, Harris generally adopts the same proimmigration agenda of Biden. But in the primaries and now, Bidens plan was more clearly prolegal immigration than Harris whose plan barely mentions the subject. Her plan mostly details how she would use executive authorities to allow illegal immigrants to obtain legal status or deferred action. This reflectsthe majority of her time in the Senate, which has focused mainly on the treatment of illegal immigrants in the United States. This is areversal from her time as aprosecutor where she worked with ICE to deport juveniles who were not charged with afelony.

On legal immigration, she wrote only that shell reverse President Trumps Muslim Ban on Day One and fix the family visa backlog. The family visa backlog has nearly 4million immigrants in it, but Harris didnt explain what her fix would be. Biden has suggested exempting some categories from the caps and providing temporary visas to those in the backlog so that they can wait in the United States.

She is the lead Democrat sponsoring the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act in the Senate. The legislationwhich Ihave written about in detailwould repeal the employmentbased country caps that cause Indian foreign workers to face anear century long wait for agreen card. The fact that she was willing to sponsor this bill demonstrates alevel of awareness about the problems facing skilled legal immigrants. She was also an original cosponsor of the NO BAN Act (which Ihave written about here) that restricts presidential authority to ban legal immigrants.

There are some points of concern. Her focus on executive action may imply that she believes aBiden administration should be less willing to compromise with Congress to make adeal. She was also one of just three Democrats to vote against abipartisan immigration bill in the Senate in 2018 that would have given President Trump congressional appropriations to build his border wall in exchange for apath to citizenship for most immigrants brought to the United States as children. ThenVox reporter Dara Lind correctly called it the Senates last best hope for immigration reform. The bill failed by 6votes.

She has also basically said that she will act on behalf of labor unions, stating a commitment to fight for organized labor. This is concerning because labor unions vehemently oppose all forms of temporary worker programs, which are the primary or, for unskilled workers, the only means for foreign workers to enter the United States for work. She led an effort to stop the Trump administrations only mildly proimmigration reforms of the H-2A program and has introduced legislation to require all farmers to pay overtime to farm workers.

On the other hand, Bidens plan called the current temporary workers cumbersome, bureaucratic, and inflexible and promised to protect or expand them (with normal caveats about protecting U.S. workers).

She also advocates an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, which the Congressional Budget Office and others have found would destroy 1.3 million lowskilled jobsdisproportionately among immigrant communities. It would price out many future immigrants from being able to come to the United States to work legally. Californias high minimum wage is likely one reason why its share of the illegal population has halved since 1990.

Harris also advocates for expanding Medicare to include all illegal and legal immigrantsa policy that Biden opposesin her Medicare for All plan (also opposed by Biden). There is some evidence that expansion of welfare benefits makes no difference to poverty rates among immigrants. Theres also evidence that government health insurance has no significant effects on health outcomes, despite increasing usage. This policy is anathema not only to conservatives, but moderate Republicans and libertarians as well. If she insisted on it, it would doom any compromise on immigration (as asimilar health care issue did in the House in 2013).

Harriss criminal justice record as aprosecutor was also extremely poor from alibertarian perspective, and given the criminalization of various immigration violations, this could be important as well. While she mostly disavows this record today, she still touts her prosecution of employers whoin her wordsexploit illegal immigrant workers, but often that can amount to simply denying immigrants the ability to work for anyone.

Overall, Harris will likely advocate for the rights of immigrants already in the United States to live and work here without federal interference. She would push Biden to immediately undo all the harm the current president has done to the legal immigration system. But she hasnt shown much interest in fixing the legal immigration system, and her positions toward guest workers are concerning. Her votes on Dreamers in 2018 indicate an unwillingness to compromise even when her own party wants her to. Her executive action plans and extreme left policies on health care make it uncertain whether she would be willing to compromise with Congress to make permanent changes that benefit immigrants and Americans.

Read more from the original source:
Kamala Harris on Immigration from a Libertarian Perspective - Cato Institute

Mireya Reith and Lawrence Benito, Opinion contributors Published 6:00 a.m. ET Aug. 12, 2020 | Updated 10:19 a.m. ET Aug. 12, 2020

After 9/11, the U.S. enforced stricter control on immigration. This enforcement led to the birth of Homeland Security and ICE, but what is ICE exactly? We explain. USA TODAY

Our vibrant immigrant community doesnt have to remain a vulnerable population.

States like Arizona,Florida andTexas have madeheadlines as ones that could turn the tide against President Donald Trumps reelection for his negligent handling of the coronavirus outbreak. But dig deeper into this latest spike in the Sun Belt and youll find another story: one of a virus devastating our immigrant communities.

Some of the most harrowing scenes are in migrant camps and detention centers inU.S.-Mexico border states. More crowded than ever, detention centers which are often unsanitary, lack basic necessities like soap and deny people basic medical care are obvious hotbeds for the disease. Thefirst cases of the virus recently wereconfirmed at a largemigration encampment on the border, where Trumps shutdown of the asylum process has caused people to be stuck for months in places where social distancing is nearly impossible.

For those not trapped in detention, many are on the front linesworkingessential jobs. But the title of essential bears no protection for these low-wage workers. Theirimmigrationstatus takes precedence, and they are left out of the resources that federal and state governments have offered others: protective gear, hazard pay, paid leave and unemployment insurance.

In ArkansasandIllinois, the states we call home, meatpacking plants have been at the center of outbreaks. In these facilities, workers, with little to no benefits like sick leave or disability, stand elbow to elbow in assembly lines.Immigrants make up30%of the industrys workforce in the United States,and many of theundocumented families will go hungry without financial assistance.

DACA recipient surprised and relieved at Supreme Court decision, but vows to concentrate on permanent protection for immigrants. (June 18) AP Domestic

Even those undocumented immigrants who are noton the front lines still face grave danger if they contract the virus they either cannot afford to pay out-of-pocket costs for a doctor, or are tooafraid to get testedor go to hospitals for fear of being exposed and ending up in detention.

Across the nation, we see the consequences of inhumaneimmigrationpolicies that leave families without protection, resources or access to care. But our vibrant immigrant community doesnt have to remain a vulnerable population.

We have the power to create a system where all of us are afforded basic human rights. We saw a glimpse of that power with theSupreme Court decision in favor of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. For a brief moment, 650,000 young immigrants could breathe a sigh of relief as their status was protected. It was a monumental feat of organizing by the immigrant community.

But Trumps reaction told us all we need to know about half-measures.He called the court's decision and one in favor of rights for LGBTQ workers shotgun blasts into the face of Republicans. And his plans forimmigrationpolicyif he were to wina second term are terrifying.

If we want to ensure immigrants are offered the full breadth of human rights and no longer remain pawns in a political game, we must pass animmigrationplan that createsan accessible, equitable road map to full citizenship.

The first step is to reimagine what safety for all of us looks like. That means ending family separation and reuniting those who have been torn apart by deportation. It also requires us to reverse provisions of the Illegal ImmigrationReform and Immigration Responsibility Act that strip due process and criminalize immigrants. We need to keep enforcement agencies out of schools, courtrooms and places of worship. And we must take the financial incentive out of detention, end private detention centers and instead invest in community-based alternatives to detention.

Immigration activists rallied outside the Supreme Court in April as the justices heard arguments on the Trump administration's plan to ask about citizenship in the 2020 census.(Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP)

True safety goes beyond dismantling violentimmigrationenforcement. It also requires that we create the conditions where immigrant communities can thrive. That includes equitable access to health care, higher education andaffordable housing, and access to benefits that they are already paying for through taxes. And as an essential workforce, immigrants must be protected when they report labor violations.

Seventy-five percentof Americans across the political spectrum believe thatimmigrationis good for the United States. And theyre right. Immigrants make us stronger, more diverse and more innovative. So not only do we have a moral obligation to treat people who have migrated with dignity, but we have the political and electoral power to do so.

We should createthe conditions to build up ourimmigrationsystem, not tear it apart. We can change the U.S. immigrant story from one of a community ravaged by violent policiesand a deadly virus, to one that is vibrant and living in harmony with all of us who want to create a brighter future for the next generation.

Mireya Reith and Lawrence Benito are co-chairs of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement.

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Many immigrants live in fear, lack basic rights: We have the power to change the system. - USA TODAY