WSLC Reports Today
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Links are functional at date of posting, but sometimes expire. Some links require free registration.  WSLC Reports Today links to stories of interest to organized labor; some positive, some negative.  The intention is to inform.

THURSDAY, MARCH 8  ▪  AFL-CIO: "End our military involvement in Iraq" -- The AFL-CIO Executive Council calls on President Bush "to revive a peace process in the Middle East (that) includes a timetable for redeploying U.S. troops out of Iraq’s civil strife. We also call on Congress to support these actions and insist on a timetable for disengagement. If the president refuses to act, Congress must use its powers under the Constitution and act."
▪  Today from AP -- Democrats want Iraq pullout by fall 2008 -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the deadline will be added to legislation providing nearly $100 billion the Bush administration has requested for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. She told reporters the measure would mark the first time the new Democratic-controlled Congress has established a "date certain" for the end of U.S. combat in the four-year-old war that has claimed the lives of more than 3,100 U.S. troops.

THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2007
AFL-CIO: "End our military involvement in Iraq"

It is time for the United States to bring its military involvement in what has become a “civil war” in Iraq to an end, the AFL-CIO Executive Council says in a strongly worded statement approved today at its winter meeting in Las Vegas.

Here is the statement in its entirety:

No U.S. foreign policy can be sustained without the informed consent of the American people.  Last November, the people spoke clearly, calling on the president and Congress to change course in Iraq.  Rather than heed the will of the citizenry or listen to the military leaders speaking out against the current policy in Iraq, the president has chosen to escalate military action.  This blind pursuit of the war now undermines the very war on terror that was its justification.

More than 3,100 U.S. men and women have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country, with nearly 30,000 wounded, many of them severely.  Estimates of Iraqi lives lost range from 60,000 to many hundreds of thousands.

We should not be asking our young men and women who serve this nation in its armed forces to remain in Iraq on extended tours without proper armor or equipment, caught in an endless occupation in the midst of a civil war.  The men and women risking their lives in Iraq come from America’s working families.  They are our sons and daughters, our sisters and brothers, our husbands and wives.  They have answered their call to duty with the utmost courage and dedication. And the best way now to recognize and honor their service is to take them out of harm’s way.

It is time to bring our military involvement in Iraq to an end.  Admittedly, there are no good options now in that country.  It has descended into a sectarian civil struggle, with American troops caught in the crossfire.  The latest National Intelligence Estimate reports that the greatest violence comes not from al Qaeda and foreign terrorists, but from sectarian militias caught up in their own internal conflict.

The president insists we must succeed militarily to establish the conditions for a political settlement. In fact, the reverse is true: Unless there is the political will to stop the violence, there can be no military solution. As such, the U.S. presence only encourages the factions to continue their warfare and serves as a magnet for foreign interference. What is needed is courageous political leadership from the Iraqi government and from the governments of neighboring countries, in a concerted effort to surmount their own considerable differences and to avoid a growing, destructive war which threatens lives and interests across the region. America should be strongly encouraging that kind of diplomatic solution, together with our allies and the United Nations. Redeploying U.S. troops should help force Iraq’s political leaders, its neighbors and our allies to reconsider their course.

The AFL-CIO continues to strongly support initiatives and programs to promote democracy, workers’ rights and economic development in the Middle East.  We believe the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (the Baker-Hamilton Commission) provides the president and Congress with a broad range of recommendations to address the wider regional conflict as well as economic and reconstruction assistance while charting a path for reducing the U.S. presence in Iraq.

We, therefore, call on President Bush to reconsider the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group.  Specifically, the administration should open up a diplomatic offensive with allies and Iraq’s neighbors.  This should include a new initiative to revive a peace process in the Middle East and it should include a timetable for redeploying U.S. troops out of Iraq’s civil strife. We also call on Congress to support these actions and insist on a timetable for disengagement. If the president refuses to act, Congress must use its powers under the Constitution and act.

THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2007
AFL-CIO: Members will decide 2008 presidential endorsement

The following press release was distributed Wednesday by the AFL-CIO:

AFL-CIO Details Plans to Put Members in Driver's Seat
of Presidential Endorsement

LAS VEGAS -- The AFL-CIO announced plans today for an intensive six-month program to involve union members and their families in selecting  the next President and laid out a timeline for the federation's endorsement  process.  AFL-CIO leaders said that through a series of candidate forums,  worker-to-worker discussions, surveys and online idea exchanges, working  people would have more opportunities than ever to engage the candidates for president around their issues.

"We are asking each of our unions to reach deep into their membership and  provide opportunities for working people to evaluate all the candidates --  and for the candidates to hear directly from them about working families' concerns," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney told reporters at a morning press briefing in Las Vegas, where the AFL-CIO Executive Council is meeting this  week.  "This will be a very bottom-up process," he said.  Sweeney said a number of unions are already holding forums with candidates and surveying their members. 

The Executive Council of the AFL-CIO will vote today on a policy that asks each of its 54 national unions not to make an endorsement until the AFL-CIO General Board decides, following the six-month period of member consultation, whether or not to endorse a candidate prior to the primaries.

"We're not going to act as individual unions," said AFSCME President and AFL-CIO Political Committee Chair Gerald McEntee. "What we're going to do is involve our members in the decision-making at every step of the endorsement  process. Our members are more than just voters they're messengers. They're  activists. They're the roots in grassroots. So they're the drivers in this process."

We're going to look at every candidate's record, their position on the  issues, the viability of their campaign and their success in motivating and inspiring our members throughout this process," McEntee said. 

The AFL-CIO policy sets out an ambitious plan to give working families a  greater voice in the presidential campaign.  It includes a series of  discussions with candidates beginning in early spring in communities across  the country and online to give working people a better opportunity to assess and evaluate the candidates on issues such as jobs, health care reform, trade policy, retirement security and the freedom to join unions and bargain for a better life.

In Nevada, union members are already playing a vital role in that important  early voting state, said Nevada AFL-CIO Executive Secretary-Treasurer Danny Thompson.  "We plan to raise the level of the national debate on working  family issues by mobilizing and educating union members and their families  for the Nevada caucus, and making sure they're ready and able to fully  participate," said Thompson.   The Nevada State AFL-CIO will not endorse a  candidate, leaving the endorsements up to the individual member unions.  

Coming off a grassroots mobilization in 2006 in which 13.6 million union voters were mobilized in 32 states in support of working family friendly candidates, the labor federation said it is poised to make an even greater impact in 2008.

"This level of activity by union members early in the process will lay the  groundwork for the greatest involvement by working people ever in electing  the President of the United States," Sweeney said.