Labor Unity Group Meets with President Obama

Click on the above to watch CWA Pres. Larry Cohen's appearance on the Newshour with Jim Lehrer.

CWA President Larry Cohen and 10 other labor leaders met with President Barack Obama at the White House this week as efforts to pass Employee Free Choice and health care reform heat up. 

The White House scheduled the meeting with the National Labor Coordinating Committee which is working to unify the labor movement.

"We appreciated the opportunity to meet with President Obama to discuss what we need to do to achieve Employee Free Choice and real health care reform," Cohen said.

That evening, Cohen went head-to-head with the Chamber of Commerce on the "Newshour with Jim Lehrer" program about Employee Free Choice.

Cohen stressed that Employee Free Choice and workers' bargaining rights are "the way to bring back the middle class in this country. It's no different than 75 years ago when John Maynard Keynes, the greatest economist of that time, wrote to President Roosevelt and said, 'I regard the expansion of collective bargaining as essential.'

"When we're cutting and cutting and cutting jobs, pay and benefits, there's no way we ever get out of a recession," Cohen said. "Workers themselves can help lift the economy, by having a seat at the bargaining table where they can meet with management and work together on a better future."