The Vermont Labor Council of the VT AFL-CIO endorsed all Progressive Party candidates and also several Democratic legislative candidates at its annual meeting Saturday, August 20 at the Old Socialist Party Labor Hall in Barre.
Two of the endorsed Democrat legislative candidates are now members of the Montpelier City Council – Mayor Anne Watson (running for Senate) and Councilor Conor Casey (running for the House).
The Council also committed support and resources to passing Article 22, the controversial Reproductive Liberty Amendment.
Vermont AFL-CIO President David Van Deusen states: “Organized Labor must do more than just support members at their worksites. We must also engage in those fights which affect working people generally, throughout all aspects of society. And here we must not and will not sit idly by while women’s rights are rolled back by a reactionary Trump-appointed Supreme Court. Rather we must fight back! The adoption by our members of the Abortion Rights Resolution, and the commitment to use PAC funds to support the Reproductive Liberty Amendment, is the right thing to do. This is a fight we shall win!”
Executive Vice President Katie Harris stated: “This is a critical moment in the fight to uphold reproductive rights in our state and our country. We are reminded that social justice issues are inherently working class issues and Organized Labor is a driving force for progressive change”
Reflecting the continuing left turn of the State Labor Council, members also voted to endorse the entire Progressive Party slate for Vermont House & Senate. This marks two election cycles in a row where the Progressives, whose genesis goes back to when Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders was Mayor of Burlington, received the complete backing of the AFL-CIO in a General Election.
In addition to the Progressive slate, a total of eight Democrats (and no Republicans) gained AFL-CIO support for their respective VT House and Senate races. This is the least amount of endorsements issued for Democratic Party candidates in the history of the Vermont AFL-CIO. In addition to an affirmative vote of the delegates, such endorsements required a 2/3rds vote of the elected Executive Board in order to override a moratorium on Democratic Party endorsements as a result of the Party willfully failing to advance AFL-CIO labor law reforms in the Statehouse such as Card Check Elections, also known as Majority Sign-Up.
Those Democrats receiving labor backing are as follows: for VT Senate, Kesha Ram and Anne Watson; for VT House Conor Casey, Mary Howard, Chip Troiano, Kevin “Coach” Christie, Emilie Kornheiser, and Mari Cordes.
Also receiving endorsements were Progressives David Zuckerman for Lt Governor and Doug Hoffer for Auditor. The State Labor Council declined to make an endorsement in the Governor’s race, for additional statewide offices, or for Congress.
In another major development, following an indicative vote by the assembled membership, Katie Harris, who also chairs the Women & Gender Equity Network, was appointed to fill the vacant Executive Vice President position, thus making her the third highest-ranking officer in the Vermont AFL-CIO. She will serve the remainder of the position’s term, which ends in September of next year. At 30 years old, Harris, a member of AFSCME Local 1674, is now the youngest Executive Vice President for any State Labor Council in the United States. Previously Harris held the position of VP for AFSCME affiliated Unions. Appointed to fill Harris’ vacated spot on the Executive Board was Damion Gilbert of Local 1343. Both Harris and Gilbert are aligned with the United! reform slate. All other Union offices, including Van Deusen serving as President, remain unchanged. The next VT AFL-CIO Executive Board election will be held in 2023.
The Convention included over 85 registered delegates, alternates, and guests. The Convention is the State Labor Council’s highest decision-making body and meets annually. Since 2019, the great majority of VT AFL-CIO’s elected leadership board, which governs the Union organization between Conventions, comes from the leftist United! caucus. The VT AFL-CIO represents over 11,500 members and has been in a state of growth for the past three years.
Most of this news story was republished from the Vermont Labor Council Facebook page.
Categories: politics
More troublemaking. As if Vermont can afford more in any way. Rights & Democracy is a COMMUNIST organization.
https://vt.aflcio.org/about-us
working Vermonters; do you feel supported? I can’t see how this group is supporting the unborn child either…..I personally feel abortion is a choice for women; up to a point..which is not much further than the 1st trimester (I know most R would like it to be never, but that is not the way of the world we live in today…move on and compromise)
article 22 is unnecessary, abortion is already legal in Vermont, with no danger of that changing……the language is vague, and I fear is going to lead to much discourse down the road….We just Do Not need this……
This joke called the labor council in no way represents Union trade union members at all. They all voted to close Vermont Yankee the biggest union stronghold left in Vermont. Most union members now work out of state!!
The Labor Council is AFL-CIO in VT. Their funding comes from subordinate unions at the worker level. Some of those are AFSCME, SEIU, and some other less known entities. The money from AFSCME and others comes from dues paying members, but is laundered through those subordinate unions to make it so it can be said” No member dues money is used for political purposes”. This is a bunch of hooey, it is a money laundering of the first order, and it all goes to the source which is the worker. I was once a member of AFSCME and I was in the local chapter for over a year before I knew what the structure was. No one in AFSCME wanted to talk about it, or explain the structure. No wonder we have no workers left in VT.
The Labor Council is AFL-CIO in VT. Their funding comes from subordinate unions at the worker level. Some of those are AFSCME, SEIU, and some other less known entities. The money from AFSCME and others comes from dues paying members, but is laundered through those subordinate unions to make it so it can be said” No member dues money is used for political purposes”. This is a bunch of hooey, it is a money laundering of the first order, and it all goes to the source which is the worker. I was once a member of AFSCME and I was in the local chapter for over a year before I knew what the structure was. No one in AFSCME wanted to talk about it, or explain the structure. No wonder we have no workers left in VT.
Infiltration – not invasion. Germany circa 1934