Sanders: The Difference Between Big Labor and Corporate Money
Bernie Sanders is willing to distinguish between Big Labor Money and Big Corporate Money, since the Communications Workers of America (CWA) are endorsing him for president.
Sanders’ rationalization carefully skirts the issue of forced dues dollars which CWA bosses collect. CWA spokesman Candice Johnson agrees with Sanders: “We do have a super PAC, but it’s a super PAC of a union of 700,000 working people, not a couple of billionaires. That’s a big difference.â€Â
Apparently there is a difference between forcing workers to pay dues to support Bernie Sanders, and contributions from large corporations, who do not squeeze their workers for money.  If you ask union members and forced-dues payers, their answer may be different. Clare Foran has the story in theatlantic.com.
Democrat Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders won one of the most significant endorsements of his presidential campaign on Thursday when Communications Workers of America, the largest communications and media labor union in the country, announced its support of the Vermont senator’s White House bid. Sanders’s growing support from big labor, however, poses challenges to a candidacy built around his independence from big money and special interests.
National Nurses United and the American Postal Workers Union have previously backed the self-described Democratic socialist. The CWA, which counts 700,000 members, is the largest union to stand in Sanders’s corner so far. Larry Cohen, the union’s former president, acts as a labor advisor to the Sanders campaign.
Union support helps build momentum for Sanders’s White House run, but may create new headaches for the campaign. That tension was on display at an event announcing the endorsement on Thursday. Sanders criticized the influence of big money in politics and repeated his promise to stay far away from super PACs. But CWA president Chris Shelton indicated the union is likely to use its super PAC to support the candidate.
“We will use whatever we need … to do every single thing we can to get Bernie Sanders elected to the presidency of the United States, so we will use our PAC money,†Shelton said, when asked how CWA planned to use its super PAC to support Sanders. “If Bernie doesn’t want to take it, okay I respect that.â€
For his part, Sanders sought to draw a distinction between grassroots political activity organized by labor unions and the power of billionaires to buy elections: “Any comparison about working people knocking on doors as opposed to billionaires making a contribution, I think, would be a false comparison,†he said. “As you know, I have said I do not want a super PAC … I will never raise money for a super PAC.â€
The labor union echoed that logic. “We will respect Bernie’s wishes but we will use all legal and possible resources to get him elected,†Candice Johnson, a spokesperson for the union said. “We do have a super PAC, but it’s a super PAC of a union of 700,000 working people, not a couple of billionaires. That’s a big difference.â€Â
Sanders already faces scrutiny over his ties to National Nurses United, which endorsed him in August and has used an affiliated super PAC to spend significantly in support of the senator. Despite Sanders’s forceful insistence that he opposes super PACs, he has appeared hesitant to disavow the effort. It’s one facet of a broader challenge facing the Sanders campaign. Can he broaden his coalition, without compromising the ideological purity that appeals to so many voters? The CWA is the latest organization to wager that the answer is yes.
Sanders’s campaign also announced an endorsement on Thursday from Democracy for America, a grassroots political organization founded by former Vermont governor Howard Dean.
The endorsements give a lift to Sanders’s campaign as the senator attempts to consolidate labor support and prove that he would do more to promote workers’ rights than Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.