Yesterday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Democrat House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi attended a rally at the Javits Center in New York City organized by labor unions. With the 2018 elections looming and Democrats starting to gear up to fight President Trump and Republicans, the rally had been organized primarily to energize union members already seeing Republicans weakening or rolling back worker health and safety protections, the Dodd-Frank law, and preparing to look at current wages and overtime -- issues that Democrats believe will lead voters to vote for Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections.
Other speakers included Lieutenant Gov. Kathy Hochul, National Organization for Women NYC President Sonia Ossorio, American Federation of Teachers head Randi Weingarten, and actors John Leguizamo and Steve Buscemi.
Various unions at the rally were not impressed by the speakers
The huge crowd was disappointed by the two Democrats and the Lt. Governor when they realized the rally was more about increasing the number of Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate in 2018 than about issues facing unions and American workers across the U.S.. For the most part, the crowd stood by silently, with the most response coming from Pelosi's words on "union rights" and attacks against Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
When Governor Cuomo, Pelosi, and the other speakers failed to acknowledge the concerns of Local 3 members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers who had been on strike against Charter Communications -- the company that owns Spectrum -- since the end of March, attendees began chanting about Spectrum's unfair labor practices until they reached a loud crescendo that drowned out the speaker's voices.
The governor finally responded but only to say that members from other unions, Democrats across the U.S., and the country stands in solidarity with them.
Workers feel abandoned by Democrats
American workers, once enamored with a Democratic Party that had always championed unions and supported wage and labor laws, worker protections, fair wages, and the right to organize, now feel that Democrats have forgotten their shared history with organized labor.
This is partly that led to hundreds of thousands of union workers across the United States -- in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan -- buying into Republican promises to bring manufacturing and other jobs back from China and casting their votes for Donald Trump. American workers and unions want candidates who speak for them, and who don't just consider union members a voting block for the 2018 Midterm Elections.
