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By unanimous consent, Union delegates elected Richard L.Trumka to a four-year term as President of the AFL-CIO on Wednesday. Mr. Trumka, a coal miner by trade with a particular interest in international commerce and trade policy, pledged to set a new course for the eleven million member federation of 56 affiliated unions. Speaking at the labor federation's annual convention in Pittsburgh, the new president announced an ambitious agenda to strengthen the domestic manufacturing base with the help of mercantilist policies from Washington. Mr. Trumka also spoke of the need to recruit the millions of disenfranchised and relatively apathetic younger workers to the union fold - a new generation of the proletariat who have neither experienced the structure of a middle-class existence nor the internal struggles of the labor movement over the past 30 years.
Reversing the labor movement's decline is a tall order - current union membership stands at 12.4% of the domestic workforce, down form a historic high of 36% during Labor's heyday in the 1940's.
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President Obama, appearing at the AFL-CIO convention on Tuesday, told delegates his commitment to protect the domestic manufacturing base had only just begun. On September 11, in a major nod to tire and rubber workers represented by the Steelworkers Union, the Obama administration levied a 35% tariff on China-based exports of auto and light truck tires. On September 9, the US Commerce Department had imposed a progressive scale of import duties on steel pipes made in China to offset Chinese subsidies. The Administration also signaled a readiness to reopen anti-labor trade deals made with Columbia and South Korea by the Bush Jr. White House. Those trade deals had not yet been ratified by the Congress under fast track provisions.
Some argue that a change in US trade policy - one focused on domestic considerations, could lead to a round of trade wars and global protectionist policies by key players. Those key players and Mr. Obama will meet at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh this week.
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The cargo ship Arctic Sea was lost somewhere off the coast of Portugal for weeks in late July in a mysterious and intriguing case of illicit weapons transfers, hijacking, and espionage. The vessel officially left port in Finland destined for Algiers on July 22 with a load of timber worth an estimated $1.5 million. Then the ship vanished - for weeks. Experts say Israel intercepted the ship - and it's cargo of Russian made S-300 surface to air missiles bound for Iran. The Mossad - the Israeli intelligence service, had been tracking the transfer and led the clandestine intercept.
The Israeli Air Force has undisputed air superiority in the region and will not allow advanced anti-aircraft batteries to hinder that advantage. The Jewish state is prepared to launched a preemptive military air-strike against Iran in the spring if the Persian state does not stop its nuclear weapons development program.
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Union Political News Report - Monday, September 21 2009
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