AFL-CIO believes in the collective efforts of working class men and women to create better conditions in the workplace. By having this voluntary system of unions they strive to achieve a closeness within, similar in theory to a community. They hold the family as a whole in high regard and do what they can to maintain this ideal. Before in our history, unfair conditions in the workplace has never failed to effect the home life of those involved, and it is The American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organization’s goal to end such negatives. They hope to change communities and ultimately the varying economy in allowing the right to be heard of their union members to be expressed for the better in terms of economic and social justice.
Political activity:
Through the usage of union members, activists and volunteers in specifics, AFL-CIO brings forth the information needed by supporters and members in the voting booths. Stating that their political activity is at a grassroots level, the group focuses on the family in this, as they do in their mission. They encourage people to vote and allow them easy access to both the particulars of essential ideologies of politicians running for office in which matters concern and relate to them and the group itself. As well as encouraging voting, the AFL-CIO is enabling training programs for its members in order to directly impact the vote by having members run for office themselves.
Current Lobbying:
Today federal budget is tightening up and cuts are being made. One of those cuts is unemployment insurance. By the end of 2010 nearly three million people who are unemployed and have been for six months or longer will be cut off. The AFL-CIO aims to stop this cut, as the difficulty of finding a job rises because of the ratio of people looking for job to the amount of available jobs; for every one job, there are five people looking for a job. Supporting long term unemployment is not the only thing the AFL-CIO is currently lobbying for; they wish to strengthen social security as well. The AFL-CIO wants to actually increase the expenditures n social security to try and fix it rather than cut it. The AFL-CIO also works on collective bargaining, which is selectively helping to raise raises for women and ethnic groups.
Current Supporters & Voters:
The AFL-CIO is mainly supported by liberals, low to middle class workers, teacher, and people who are unemployed living off of government benefits and people who are employed, using government benefits as a crutch. They for low income workers, promising better pay, and better health insurance and to bring them up to the middle class. It is opposed by conservatives, business leaders and entrepreneurs, and individuals competing against union workers.
Known Political Supporters:Harry Reid who ran for Nevada senator in the 2010 midterm elections is a known political supporter of AFL-CIO. The president of AFl-CIO Rich Trumka helped rally in Nevada to the workers for Reid because he is supportive of working, unlike his opponent Sharron Angle, who kept more corporate interests in mind. Reid supports stances on energy, job creation, Social Security, and the Employee Free Choice Act, making him known as AFL-CIO's “labor champion.”He ended up being reelected for the senate seat against far right-wing republican Angle who had received copious amounts of secret corporate funding.
Joe Manchin, governor of West Virginia, is also a known supporter of AFL-CIO because of his platforms on giving jobs overseas. When running against another right-wing candidate named John Raese for senate, he planned on changing trade laws and changing free-trade agreements so that jobs will not be shipped overseas and then products are bought here. Manchin wants jobs to stay in the U.S., giving Americans more employment opportunities.
Another AFL-CIO supporter is Illinois governor Pat Quinn who ran for Illinois senate in the 2010 midterm elections. The Illinois AFL-CIO especially helped Quinn run and successfully obtain the Senate seat through campaigning, utilizing phone calls, field operations, and hanging up signs. Quinn is supportive of labor through monetary investments of about $31 billion in city and county services, earning especially many union voters which ultimately led to his victory.
PAC's?
AFL-CIO does in fact form political action committees. For example, during the 2008 election cycle for congress, AFL-CIO formed a PAC called the Transportation Trades Department AFL-CIO PAC that gave a total of $150,614 to many different representatives. The recipients of the monetary donations were primarily democratic, which correlates to the fact that they would typically be supportive of labor rights.
Another PAC that AFL-CIO forms is the United American Nurses AFL-CIO. They contributed $23,500 to all democratic candidates for the 2010 midterm election cycle.
U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Known Political Supporters:
Most political supporters of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are predominantly republicans who advocate free-trade. Political supporters during the 2010 midterm elections were John Sununu, Gordon Smith, Roger Wicker, Saxby Chambliss, and Elizabeth Dole.
PAC's?
U.S.C.C forms PAC's and spent $10 million a week on the 2010 congressional races, one of the biggest expenditures. During the campaign, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reported that it planned on spending $75 million in an aggressive campaign to defeat democrats and in fact gave 89% of it's total money to republican candidates. Major donors have included Prudential Financial and Dow Chemical. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is known as a lobbying group that spends the most money with its PAC during elections. Also, a number of its members are from non-U.S. based foreign companies, indicating that these companies support U.S. C.C because of its platform on free trade. These foreign companies want to benefit as much as possible from trade with the United States.
http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/11/09/reid-manchin-quinn-tell-executive-council-union-support-jobs-message-key-to-wins/
http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/committees/transportation-trades-department-afl-cio-political-action-committee-ttd-pac.asp?cycle=08
