This Labor Day weekend one of the most prominent labor unions is partnering with Interfaith Worker Justice to sponsor events focused on faith and labor. A blog post on the AFL-CIO website announced that roughly 100 “Labor in the Pulpits” [1]services were planned for Chicago, Ill., and about 50 in Baltimore, Md.
According to that post, “Labor Day weekend provides a unique opportunity for faith communities, workers, worker advocates and the labor movement to rediscover their common bonds: social justice, equality, the dignity and respect of all persons, economic justice and fair treatment in the workplace.”
Like most unions, the AFL-CIO group of unions [2] leans left. That comes as no surprise, but what might surprise some is that many journalists are actually represented by labor unions that are affiliated with the AFL-CIO. That apparently doesn’t strike journalists as being a conflict of interest.
Two of the more prominent journalism unions (both AFL-CIO members), the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the Newspaper Guild which merged with CWA in 1997, make no secret of their “progressive policy [3].” These unions have campaigned for most liberal policy initiatives – all while receiving dues from journalists at respected news outlets.
The Newspaper Guild and CWA represent over 700,000 [4] people, including nearly 900 [5] from The Washington Post, according to their own records. In an interview on “Moyers & Company,” CWA president Larry Cohen [6] voiced a desire to create a “tea party of the left” to drive the Democratic Party agenda even further from the center. Cohen was arrested on Aug. 1, 2013, at a sit-down protest against “the failure of the House of Representatives to take action on immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship.” In May 2012, Cohen spoke out [7] against “the limits of democracy” to enact the agenda he envisioned, claiming that he wanted to “reclaim” the “U.S. democracy” from “the increasing control of corporate interests and their money.”
The Newspaper Guild and CWA, with cries of “We are the 99 percent [8]!” joined forces with other liberal groups, like George Soros-funded Common Cause, in supporting the radical Occupy Movement. Common Cause has gotten $2,528,500 from Soros’ Open Society Foundations since 2000. CWA’s website promotes a left-wing agenda, including an animated video that attempts to sell Obamacare [9] to skeptics. The group has also been outspoken in its support of same-sex marriage [10].
The Newspaper Guild isn’t just content to push liberal policies with journalist money either: it plans to reach younger people and train a new generation [11] of liberal journalists. In October 2012, the Guild’s San Francisco-area chapter’s intern program sought to teach aspiring journalists “social justice journalism.”
An article [11] from student Peter Hernandez outlined how the program shaped and changed his views of journalism. The editor of the program encouraged interns to “question the old models of journalism” and students were “instilled a righteousness to our entitlement for pay for our journalistic work” the included “collective bargaining-turned-socialist division of stipends.”
Like the Newspaper Guild and CWA, the AFL-CIO [12] has consistently supported liberal policies and legislation including minimum wage increases, living wage bills and ObamaCare.