In a letter to the presidents of its member unions yesterday, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the coalition will not be putting big money into the Democratic convention in Charlotte, North Carolina:
Elsewhere in the letter Trumka says the coalition is committed to President Obama’s reelection and supporting the Democratic Party. But Trumka’s decision not to make big donations underscores Big Labor’s anger over the party’s decision to hold their convention in North Carolina, a right-to-work state with weak unions.
Instead Trumka says the money will go to “our core political work and to investing in a long-term labor movement structure to build power for working men and women.” In other words they’ll spend the money without the Democratic National Committee’s input. It is unclear exactly how much money he is talking about.
“The changes he’s referring to are the same we’ve been talking about for more than a year now about political independence,” said AFL-CIO spokesman Josh Goldstein.
The letter also said that unions will be holding their own event on August 11 in Philadelphia in advance of the convention, dubbed the “Workers Stand for America” rally. An AP story dubbed the event a “shadow convention,” a characterization union officials have tried to shoot down.
“The basis of the story is flat out wrong. There’s an event going on in Philly on the 11th but it’s in no way how the AP described it,” Goldstein said.
They clearly want to send a message though. As Trumka put it in his letter:
