Some members of the Service Employees International Union were disappointed that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders wasn’t at their annual National Forum on Wages and Working People conference. Other candidates present provoked a bad case of the blahs. Until, that is, the final candidate spoke: Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, whose room-filling appearance suggests Sanders will have to vie with her for workers’ votes.
The annual event, held at a convention venue in Las Vegas Nevada on Saturday, was also co-sponsored by the Center for American Progress Action Fund — the same organization that has long feuded with the democratic socialist and current 2020 frontrunner.
Just a few weeks ago, the John Podesta-founded liberal advocacy group and think tank released a video criticizing Sanders for his personal wealth. In 2016, the group pushed hard during the primary for Hillary Clinton’s nomination.
Supporters of Sanders say the Center for American Progress is beholden to wealthy donors and corporate interests. His campaign has fundraised off disdain for the group among his base.
So when members of the Service Employees Union listened to the first five of six different Democratic presidential candidates — California Sen. Kamala Harris, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro, and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper — there was palpable disappointment.
“Almost none of them really understand unions. They talk unions and present labor laws, but the well-paying jobs aren’t there,” a Nevada-based Service Employees Union member told the Washington Examiner. “None of the candidates who have spoken have an appreciation for how labor got here. It’s a different economy, it’s not a shared economy anymore.”
Other members talked in the kind of left-wing economic language popularized by Sanders. Whereas the Center’s president Neera Tanden spoke about the need for a $15 minimum wage, Service Employees Union members talked about how every worker should be guaranteed a “living wage.”
The specter of Sanders hovering over the proceedings was most apparent in Q&A section of the programming, where candidates like Hickenlooper and Harris were asked about how they could support service workers like McDonald’s employees in their mission to organize.
Sanders led the fight in demanding the fast-food megacorp raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour back in October 2018. After building pressure from activists, the company announced in March that it would no longer lobby against wage hikes at the local, state, and federal level.
“I supported Sanders in 2016, but it’s clear that the rest of the party is following his lead, so I have an open mind” a Washington-based Service Employees Union member said
Most Service Employees Union members who voted for Sanders in 2016 would only speak on background. The union, which says it has over 1.2 million members, endorsed Hillary Clinton early on in the last presidential race — much to the frustration of many of its members.
That schism within the union hasn’t gone unnoticed among the 2020 Democrats. While it remains extremely unlikely the group will endorse Sanders, given its ties to the Democratic establishment, the other candidates must placate a base that’s moving to the Left and demanding policies that were mainstreamed by the Vermont senator just a few years ago.
Promises from candidates like Harris and Klobuchar to make “right-to-work” laws illegal and to beef up the federal National Labor Relations Board with pro-union officials were met with tepid applause.
Other issues like healthcare signaled disconnects between some of the candidates and attendees who talked about the need to fundamentally change the American economy to one they believe would be far more equitable to the average worker.
“We need a candidate who will just acknowledge that we are here, acknowledging that we’re honestly human. The way a lot of people higher up just see us as numbers. It makes you feel really isolated in the world,” Sarah Bennet, a Service Employees Union member and caregiver in Oregon, told the Examiner. She said the Democratic Party needs to nominate someone who will go beyond a $15 minimum wage and will guarantee Medicare for All.
That meant candidates like O’Rourke, Klobuchar, and Hickenlooper who gave impassioned cases for why every American deserves healthcare — but wouldn’t endorse Sanders’ bill to put every American on a government-run health plan — failed to inspire many who traveled across the country to Vegas, where they had to wait in 95-degree heat to get into the conference.
“O’Rourke says a lot but doesn’t really seem to say anything at the same time,” one attendant told the Examiner.
By near the end of the event, many attendees seemed a bit disappointed. Speakers like O’Rourke sounded good but lacked specifics. Others like Klobuchar who gave detailed responses about how she’d help labor didn’t seem to have the energy necessary to take on President Trump.
Then Warren closed the day out.
Seats began filling back up. Members of the press took their headphones off. If you had never looked at the polls, the energy in the room made you think Warren was about to accept her party’s nomination for president.
“Now, let’s be blunt. People who have power do not give it up easily. There are a lot corporate CEOs and big shareholders who have vapors [over my plans]. To which my answer is: ‘Too bad,'” Warren said as applause erupted.
Warren outlined policies she said would help restore union membership and raise wages, like restructuring the Department of Labor and allowing states to withhold union dues from Medicaid funds for home healthcare workers.
“So, here’s how I think about the people who do the work. Here in America, we don’t know whose grandma is going to outlive her savings. We don’t know whose good friend is going to fall and not be able to take care of himself,” Warren said. “But what we do know as Americans, is that we all pitch something in every day so that if it hits your family, or your family, or your family, we’re all gonna be there for each other.”
One woman, who voted for Sanders in the 2016 primary and works for the Service Employees Union in Minnesota told the Examiner earlier in the day that she wasn’t sure someone like Warren had the charisma to take back the White House. As she left the venue, she had done a 180.
“I still have goosebumps,” she said, right before taking out a cigarette.
