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CLINTON ON UNIONS. Since I talked a lot about Mark Penn and labor this week, I think it's only fair to link to Hillary Clinton's speech on the issue:
I believe that it is absolutely essential to the way America works that people be given the right to organize and bargain collectively. Nearly 90 years ago, when 36 delegates gathered for the first IAFF convention, 84 hours work-weeks were the norm, and terrible conditions were a fact of life. You know why that's no longer the case? Because of you. You organized, you unionized, you stood up for your rights. You said, "We're not going to be invisible. We're doing our part. You have to give us safe working conditions, fair treatment, and the right to bargain."[...]Make no mistake about it, the days of George Bush thinking the union bug is something he needs to squash are over. We are here to stand up for the rights of people who pull children out of raging waters and rescue people from flaming rooftops. We are here to stand up for the people who stand up for us. We have a lot of work head of us, and we could get some small victories along the way until we finally get the majorities we need to completely have an agenda that we support in the Senate. They can still stop a lot of what we believe in, unfortunately, but we just have to keep electing more people who see the world the way we do. And we certainly will make a lot more progress when we take back the White House.I don't quite know how she reconciles all that with having a top advisor who oversees unionbusting, but it's worth saying that there is, at least in public statements and votes, genuine daylight between the implications of Penn's actions and Hillary Clinton's expressed worldview. --Ezra Klein
