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Labor's Friends in the GOP: Moderate Republicans Buck Party Leaders to Stand Up For Workers
Finishing up a speech often broken by hearty applause, the congressman addressing CWA's 2004 legislative conference had high praise for his union audience.
"Thank you for representing the best of organized labor," New York Representative Peter King said. "And when you represent the best of organized labor, you really represent the best of the United States of America."
It's not an unusual sound bite from the Capitol Hill speakers at the annual conference. Except that King is a Republican.
King, who grew up in a neighborhood where virtually every worker was a union member, is a moderate, pro-labor Republican. CWA has long supported him and other like-minded GOP colleagues who consistently stand up for workers against their powerful party leadership.
"CWA's mission isn't to support Democrats. It's to support those candidates who genuinely care about workers and respect the important role unions play in the checks and balances of our society," CWA President Morton Bahr said.
Bahr said, he's learned that even the most hardened Republicans can sometimes be swayed, recalling the strong opposition by many in the GOP to the Federal Communication Commission's rule changes on media ownership - a major issue for CWA and its media sectors.
Bahr wrote notes of thanks to six Republicans who fought to overturn the FCC decision. He thought someone was playing a joke on him when one of the most conservative senators, Trent Lott of Mississippi, called him.
"But it was Trent Lott," Bahr said, "first thanking me for the letter and then saying, 'You know, I broke with my party on this because the issue was right. Don't always take me for granted.'"
Tough Times for Moderates
Being a moderate, worker-friendly Republican in Washington today isn't easy. While the media rules were a rare, union-backed issue that drew broad support from Republicans, by and large the party's leadership has moved far to the right and often maneuvers to keep important workers' issues off the docket entirely.
For months, a group of moderate U.S. House Republicans tried to get Speaker Tom DeLay to allow a vote to stop the Bush rules threatening millions of workers' overtime pay rights. Time after time, leaders kept the issue from coming to the floor.
Yet just two weeks after the rules went into effect in late August, a renewed effort to kill the rules made it to a vote, and 22 Republicans joined Democrats in delivering a stinging rebuke to the Bush administration.
It's a good example of how moderates can exert power behind the scenes, said Sarah Resnick, director of the Republican Main Street Partnership, an organization for moderate GOP members.
"The moderates negotiated with the leadership," Resnick said. "Without them, it wouldn't have come to the floor."
Representative Jack Quinn, another New York Republican with a union background - his wife, in fact, was a CWA-represented nurse for many years - said moderates work hard to shape legislation that's good for workers and that a majority in Congress will support.
"My whole thrust has been for moderate Republicans to try to influence what the legislation looks like before it comes to a floor fight," said Quinn, who retires this year after six terms of fighting for minimum wage hikes, extended unemployment benefits, labor standards in trade agreements and much more. "I think we need to avoid situations where it's us against them. That just polarizes everybody and then you've got to dig in and fight your way out."
Ultimately, Quinn said he and other moderate Republicans may not vote the way CWA hopes, meaning their efforts aren't reflected by their "score" in the union's annual report on how members of Congress voted on labor issues.
But he said those efforts - meetings with union leaders and Department of Labor officials, demands to remove harmful language from bills, calls for compromise - make for legislation that's far better for workers than what was originally proposed.
He cited the bill creating the Homeland Security Department as an example. Although there are restrictions on organizing by some homeland security workers, the final language on labor rights was less draconian than the president and GOP leaders wanted.
"In this case, the moderate Republicans ultimately voted with the administration," but not before spending lots of time talking with civil service employees and working out compromise language, he said. "It isn't always about how you voted."
Defining 'Moderate'
Just what is a moderate Republican? It's a question Resnick, of the six-year-old Partnership, gets asked all the time.
"A moderate Republican is a fiscally conservative deficit hawk who believes in staying out of personal issues, " she said.
The Partnership was founded by another New York Republican, Representative Amo Houghton, who hoped to broaden the base of a party seen as increasingly conservative. It's since grown to have 68 members from the House and Senate.
They include Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, one of the most outspoken critics of the Bush overtime rules. He called them "154 pages of confusing rhetoric," when he spoke at a union rally on Aug. 23, the day the rules went into effect.
"The fight is not over yet," he said. "The band of Senate moderates may be small, but it can be decisive and determinative. Your voice today will be heard."
Resnick said Partnership members come from across the country and largely have good relationships with labor. Some regularly meet with union members in their home districts. Quinn, for instance, holds a "labor roundtable" with Buffalo-area union leaders every three months.
Threats from the Far Right
Moderate Republicans trying to hold onto their seats have more to worry about than Democratic contenders. Today, they are regularly targeted in primaries by candidates bankrolled by the archconservative Club for Growth.
Founded by anti-tax extremists, the club has made no secret of its campaign to bleed government programs virtually dry by filling Congress with members who share its vision. Meaning, as it says in an online appeal for members, "not electing Republicans who vote like Democrats."
"Remember that just because candidates call themselves 'fiscal conservatives' or 'friends of taxpayers' is hardly a guarantee that they can be counted on to advance our issues," the club warns.
Resnick said moderate Republicans are just as concerned about the skyrocketing deficit, as well as spending. But she said they also believe there are social programs they must support. She cited the Medicare reform bill as an example.
"Granted, it may need some tinkering. It's a first step," she said. "But without our members there wouldn't be any reform. As much as we are deficit hawks, we're deficit hawks with a heart."
With so much pressure coming from the conservative wing of the party and those trying to control it from the outside, Resnick said it helps for moderate Republicans to get feedback - letters, e-mails - when they've stuck to their guns. "If they've cast a vote for labor, reach out and let them know you appreciate it," she said.
Striking a Balance
King, speaking to CWA's legislative conference, said he knows the Republican Party's more conservative wing hasn't made it easy for labor to work with them.
"I know for the most part, our national leadership comes from a background that is not pro-union and in many cases even anti-union," he said. "As a result, we find ourselves re-fighting battles that we thought were decided back in the Depression, back during the New Deal."
Still, King said "You can find 20, 30, 40 Republicans who, on given issues, are willing to work with you ... the fact is that we are not the monolith that you might think we are."
King, once a member of the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks who has counted union members as his friends and neighbors all his life, said "It was beyond my wildest imagination that somehow people would look upon unions as being an enemy force."
He first heard the disparaging remarks among conservatives in Washington and found it inconsistent with what he felt was Republican philosophy. "One of the people that my party most admired in the world and stood behind was Lech Walensa of Poland because he was building a labor movement. I used to think, well, it's great to have a labor movement in Poland, how about in the United States?"
He assured his audience that he wasn't "just saying that because I'm at a labor breakfast."
"I'm saying it because in a truly free democratic society, you do need strong private enterprise, you do need strong business, you do need strong workers' rights and you do need strong organized labor," he said. "It's that balance that makes the system work."
"Thank you for representing the best of organized labor," New York Representative Peter King said. "And when you represent the best of organized labor, you really represent the best of the United States of America."
It's not an unusual sound bite from the Capitol Hill speakers at the annual conference. Except that King is a Republican.
King, who grew up in a neighborhood where virtually every worker was a union member, is a moderate, pro-labor Republican. CWA has long supported him and other like-minded GOP colleagues who consistently stand up for workers against their powerful party leadership.
"CWA's mission isn't to support Democrats. It's to support those candidates who genuinely care about workers and respect the important role unions play in the checks and balances of our society," CWA President Morton Bahr said.
Bahr said, he's learned that even the most hardened Republicans can sometimes be swayed, recalling the strong opposition by many in the GOP to the Federal Communication Commission's rule changes on media ownership - a major issue for CWA and its media sectors.
Bahr wrote notes of thanks to six Republicans who fought to overturn the FCC decision. He thought someone was playing a joke on him when one of the most conservative senators, Trent Lott of Mississippi, called him.
"But it was Trent Lott," Bahr said, "first thanking me for the letter and then saying, 'You know, I broke with my party on this because the issue was right. Don't always take me for granted.'"
Tough Times for Moderates
Being a moderate, worker-friendly Republican in Washington today isn't easy. While the media rules were a rare, union-backed issue that drew broad support from Republicans, by and large the party's leadership has moved far to the right and often maneuvers to keep important workers' issues off the docket entirely.
For months, a group of moderate U.S. House Republicans tried to get Speaker Tom DeLay to allow a vote to stop the Bush rules threatening millions of workers' overtime pay rights. Time after time, leaders kept the issue from coming to the floor.
Yet just two weeks after the rules went into effect in late August, a renewed effort to kill the rules made it to a vote, and 22 Republicans joined Democrats in delivering a stinging rebuke to the Bush administration.
It's a good example of how moderates can exert power behind the scenes, said Sarah Resnick, director of the Republican Main Street Partnership, an organization for moderate GOP members.
"The moderates negotiated with the leadership," Resnick said. "Without them, it wouldn't have come to the floor."
Representative Jack Quinn, another New York Republican with a union background - his wife, in fact, was a CWA-represented nurse for many years - said moderates work hard to shape legislation that's good for workers and that a majority in Congress will support.
"My whole thrust has been for moderate Republicans to try to influence what the legislation looks like before it comes to a floor fight," said Quinn, who retires this year after six terms of fighting for minimum wage hikes, extended unemployment benefits, labor standards in trade agreements and much more. "I think we need to avoid situations where it's us against them. That just polarizes everybody and then you've got to dig in and fight your way out."
Ultimately, Quinn said he and other moderate Republicans may not vote the way CWA hopes, meaning their efforts aren't reflected by their "score" in the union's annual report on how members of Congress voted on labor issues.
But he said those efforts - meetings with union leaders and Department of Labor officials, demands to remove harmful language from bills, calls for compromise - make for legislation that's far better for workers than what was originally proposed.
He cited the bill creating the Homeland Security Department as an example. Although there are restrictions on organizing by some homeland security workers, the final language on labor rights was less draconian than the president and GOP leaders wanted.
"In this case, the moderate Republicans ultimately voted with the administration," but not before spending lots of time talking with civil service employees and working out compromise language, he said. "It isn't always about how you voted."
Defining 'Moderate'
Just what is a moderate Republican? It's a question Resnick, of the six-year-old Partnership, gets asked all the time.
"A moderate Republican is a fiscally conservative deficit hawk who believes in staying out of personal issues, " she said.
The Partnership was founded by another New York Republican, Representative Amo Houghton, who hoped to broaden the base of a party seen as increasingly conservative. It's since grown to have 68 members from the House and Senate.
They include Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, one of the most outspoken critics of the Bush overtime rules. He called them "154 pages of confusing rhetoric," when he spoke at a union rally on Aug. 23, the day the rules went into effect.
"The fight is not over yet," he said. "The band of Senate moderates may be small, but it can be decisive and determinative. Your voice today will be heard."
Resnick said Partnership members come from across the country and largely have good relationships with labor. Some regularly meet with union members in their home districts. Quinn, for instance, holds a "labor roundtable" with Buffalo-area union leaders every three months.
Threats from the Far Right
Moderate Republicans trying to hold onto their seats have more to worry about than Democratic contenders. Today, they are regularly targeted in primaries by candidates bankrolled by the archconservative Club for Growth.
Founded by anti-tax extremists, the club has made no secret of its campaign to bleed government programs virtually dry by filling Congress with members who share its vision. Meaning, as it says in an online appeal for members, "not electing Republicans who vote like Democrats."
"Remember that just because candidates call themselves 'fiscal conservatives' or 'friends of taxpayers' is hardly a guarantee that they can be counted on to advance our issues," the club warns.
Resnick said moderate Republicans are just as concerned about the skyrocketing deficit, as well as spending. But she said they also believe there are social programs they must support. She cited the Medicare reform bill as an example.
"Granted, it may need some tinkering. It's a first step," she said. "But without our members there wouldn't be any reform. As much as we are deficit hawks, we're deficit hawks with a heart."
With so much pressure coming from the conservative wing of the party and those trying to control it from the outside, Resnick said it helps for moderate Republicans to get feedback - letters, e-mails - when they've stuck to their guns. "If they've cast a vote for labor, reach out and let them know you appreciate it," she said.
Striking a Balance
King, speaking to CWA's legislative conference, said he knows the Republican Party's more conservative wing hasn't made it easy for labor to work with them.
"I know for the most part, our national leadership comes from a background that is not pro-union and in many cases even anti-union," he said. "As a result, we find ourselves re-fighting battles that we thought were decided back in the Depression, back during the New Deal."
Still, King said "You can find 20, 30, 40 Republicans who, on given issues, are willing to work with you ... the fact is that we are not the monolith that you might think we are."
King, once a member of the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks who has counted union members as his friends and neighbors all his life, said "It was beyond my wildest imagination that somehow people would look upon unions as being an enemy force."
He first heard the disparaging remarks among conservatives in Washington and found it inconsistent with what he felt was Republican philosophy. "One of the people that my party most admired in the world and stood behind was Lech Walensa of Poland because he was building a labor movement. I used to think, well, it's great to have a labor movement in Poland, how about in the United States?"
He assured his audience that he wasn't "just saying that because I'm at a labor breakfast."
"I'm saying it because in a truly free democratic society, you do need strong private enterprise, you do need strong business, you do need strong workers' rights and you do need strong organized labor," he said. "It's that balance that makes the system work."