In a wide-ranging Work-Bites interview, labor author and academic Robert Ovetz sizes up the chances of Democrats actually delivering for working families following last week’s historic blue wave.
By Joe Maniscalco
Independent Vermont Senator and longtime labor champion Bernie Sanders is telling supporters this week that Democrats now have enough votes following Nov. 3rd’s blue wave to pass legislation that will “demonstrably improve the lives of millions of working families”—and that they must deliver.
“No more empty rhetoric,” Sanders said in fiery emails to supporters this week. “No more telling us how terrible Trump and the Republicans are. No more excuses.”
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, head of the largest federation of unions in the country, meanwhile, has wasted no time time slapping a “union made” sticker on the midterm elections calling last Tuesday’s historic blue wave the result of the “largest midterm mobilization in the labor movement's history.”
Clearly, the AFL-CIO, representing more than 15 million active workers and retirees across the country, could have a lot to say about whether or not Democratic Party excuses for failing working families continue to be tolerated.
That’s important because few who helped send Trump Republicans packing in historic numbers during the midterms, and also share Sanders’ frustration with Democratic Party leadership, believe Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Chuck Schumer will deliver anything but more excuses and frustration if they remain at the helm of the party—and they want them out.
Just 13 percent of registered voters responding to an NBC News poll conducted last month said they support Schumer as majority leader, while another poll from the Economist/YouGov released just days before the midterms actually found more support for outgoing GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson than for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Labor academic and author Robert Ovetz, calls both Schumer and Jeffries “out of touch” and outright “enemies of the working class.”
“[Schumer and Jeffreis’] policies are terrible,” Ovetz recently told Work-Bites during a wide-ranging interview broadcast Monday on WBAI’s Labor and Healthcare Confidential show. “They’re tone deaf to the important issues. They have made no efforts to do anything like raise the minimum wage or stop funding Israel.”
“Their policies are terrible,” Ovetz recently told Work-Bites during a wide-ranging interview broadcast Monday on WBAI’s Labor and Healthcare Confidential show. “They're tone deaf to the important issues. They have made no efforts to do anything like raise the minimum wage or stop funding Israel.”
That said, Ovetz—who previously authored We the Elites: Why the US Constitution Serves the Few and When Workers Shot Back: Class Conflict from 1877 to 1921—doesn’t believe Liz Shuler or any other establishment labor figure will actually do much to hold Democrats to account or challenge the Jeffries/Schumer coronation.
“Democrats are going to play it safe,” Ovetz continued. “They’re going to tell us all the reasons why we can't do anything—and sadly, much of the union leadership is going to go along with that.”
Cover of Robert Ovetz’s latest booking coming in 2027.
A big part of the reason, according to Ovetz, whose latest book called Rebels for the System: NGOs, Capitalism, and the Labor Movement arrives in 2027, is entrenched union leadership’s overreliance on elections as a means to achieve the changes working class families have spent decades clamoring for.
“I don't think we're in any unique situation,” Ovetz continued. “Each time the Democratic Party over the last half century has achieved a trifecta, which is control of both houses of Congress, and even with the presidency, we don't get a lot of change.”
Indeed, since 1976, Democrats have held both the House and Senate for a total of 20 years, but without achieving much for working class families continually falling behind.
As Ovetz further pointed out, what working class families have gotten instead is increased military spending, all kinds of roadblocks and impediments to unionizing and striking, and deep cuts to beneficial agencies including those tasked with protecting fundamental workplace safety.
“You name it,” Ovetz said, “the Democratic Party has not delivered over and over again.”
Rather than waiting around for Lucy to pull the football away from Charlie Brown yet again—Ovetz believes labor unions should be investing a lot more time and money into organizing and educating rank and file members.
Thousands turned out for this past weekend’s March for Democracy in Times Square, in which marchers called to abolish ICE, prosecute Trump administration crimes, provide pathways to citizenship, tax the rich—and dump Schumer.
Online petitions created after the Nov. 3 blue wave, meanwhile, have also amassed hundreds of thousands of signatures opposing the elevation of both Schumer and Jeffries.
On Nov. 6, the non-AFL-CIO affiliated United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America released a statement warning, “While President Trump has promised to veto any legislation passed by the new Democratic Congress, Democrats must not use that as an excuse not to craft and pass legislation to constrain corporate power and put more money in working people’s pockets.”
Despite the growing opposition, Ovetz said we should expect the Democratic Party leadership to continue suppressing dissenting voices and doing things exactly the same way they’ve always done them.
“I mean, look at what they did in the Michigan Senate race, withholding an endorsement from Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed until the last moments,” Ovetz said. “They are trying to use their discipline against members on the left wing of the party—and Senator-elect Abdul El Sayed is an example of that.”
At the time of this writing, Democrats have secured 54 seats in the Senate—10 more than their GOP rivals, while in the House the split stands at 254 for Democrats and 165 for Republicans. Two Senate races and more than two dozen House races have yet to be decided.
Listen below for the complete Work-Bites interview with Robert Ovetz.