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The White House began patching frayed relations with its labor allies last summer, when the bridges it tried to build with Republicans and the business community weren’t leading to bipartisan breakthroughs or a fresh wave of private-sector hiring. Unions and their progressive allies had a long list of complaints: the lack of a public option in the health care law, unfilled seats on the National Labor Relations Board and Obama’s offer to strike a “grand bargain” on deficit reduction with House Speaker John Boehner.
“It was all of that, plus [in labor’s] opinion we were not being aggressive” on their issues, said one former White House aide with knowledge of the situation. That experience, the aide said, led Obama to pivot to a more populist, labor-friendly agenda with jobs as the centerpiece. Both the White House and the president’s reelection campaign in Chicago declined to comment for this story.
Perhaps Obama’s most important asset in resetting his relationship with labor: Compared with him, the Republicans vying to replace him are downright hostile.
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Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen, whose union endorsed Obama last month, said the president has earned more time to rebuild an economy that can benefit more than the wealthy 1 percent. “We’re extremely confident that he will win, and we will work tirelessly to that end,” Cohen said.
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