interviews
Labor and the White House
by Dave Weigel
March 31, 2021
This interview with Dave Weigel, national reporter covering politics for the Washington Post, was conducted and condensed by franknews and Payday Report.
DW | The White House's involvement in the Amazon union drive was a big surprise. I mean, we know where it could have originated, the union talked to the White House; they have kind of an open door with Biden that they didn't have with Trump. We know that Faiz Shakir, Bernie Sanders’ campaign chairman, and his group, Perfect Union, got involved. So, there was public pressure.
The fact that the White House and the president released that video was a big deal to people. And, he made this decision to get involved very early on in his presidency. It was within his first 50 days. He decided to do what hadn't been done before and give a message in support of the union. It was a very careful message. The new labor secretary, Marty Walsh, when asked specifically about Amazon, responded in more general tones.
But, no matter what happens, if you are in for a penny, you are in for a pound.
A lot of previous presidents, including Barack Obama, said a lot less about these union drives and, in doing so, limited their own exposure. If the drive didn't work, people didn't say that the president supported something that didn't work. The fact that Biden made a statement, early on, when it wasn't clear how this was going to go, is a real political statement of what they thought was important.
frank | How do you think his background plays a role in this?
He's always leaned in really hard and identified with workers in the same way he's tried to identify with different civil rights movements. Joe Biden has always wanted to be seen as the kind of person who is coming from Scranton, who has lived through the sixties, and who wants to jump to the front of the march if there is a struggle happening.
He frames everything in terms of fairness. He's not as natural as other members of the party in talking about this. When Bernie Sanders talks about this, for example, he talks about greed, he names CEOs, he says nobody deserves that much money, he talks about a maximum wage and how there should be no billionaires at all. Biden doesn't go that far. Biden has never gone after Jeff Bezos. He's never gone after individual heads of companies the way that Sanders does. He does this sort of a "Hey man, these guys are under assault, somebody needs to stick up for them."
That is something that he has always wanted to be part of his brand. Even when he was voting for trade deals like NAFTA as a Senator, he was never really comfortable. He had the same ideological mindset as a lot of the Democrats in the eighties and the nineties. He did it because he saw that that was the way things were moving and he voted strategically. But, the stuff that fired him up was when he could side with workers. It is the same thing with the projects he took on under Obama when he was Vice President.
During the Democratic primary, he didn't get the same amount of labor support that Hillary Clinton did, but, Sanders didn't get it either. There wasn't the same sort of a landslide of labor to get in early and say, this is our candidate. Instead, they were demanding more of the candidates.
I would cover presidential primary events with the Teamsters in Cedar Rapids or the Building Trades in DC and you would kind of look to the level of applause as an indicator. The interesting thing is that at those events Sanders would lay out the things he did and what he wanted to pass. Biden would go on at length about non-compete clauses and about wage theft and things like that. It was less, "I have studied all of the papers on this and I've decided this is my policy," and more of "this seems unfair and I'm against this thing."
I think the Democratic Party is increasingly understanding what labor can mean for them strategically.
Republicans have gotten kind of tangled up on labor. They have done better with union households, but they are basically the party of deregulation still. They've never really moved on the labor part of their messaging. That makes it easier for Biden to compete for these workers. When it comes down to it, Republicans want “right-to-work." Josh Hawley, who branded himself as a working-class candidate, for example, supports a national right-to-work.
Biden was very concerned with winning back more union households. Union workers were saying, “Democrats had the presidency for 16 years. What do they do for us?” Biden didn't have all the answers that labor wanted, but he was making a lot of specific promises about how he was going to act. He talked about infrastructure spending and about how he was going to run the NLRB and how he was going to approach employers. It was less than Sanders did, but that's way more than Democrats had done in the past.
I mean, the McCain/Romney era Republicans had no appeal to the sort of voters who voted for Obama twice and then voted for Trump. Biden only peeled back maybe 10% of them depending on where you're talking about, but it has made life easier for Democrats.
This fight has in large part been framed in the context of continuing a battle for civil rights. Do you see Biden lean into that messaging?
Biden did not really lean to the racial justice aspect or the civil rights legacy aspect of this labor fight. When the congressional delegation here came down a couple of weeks before the vote, they were much more explicit. Someone like Jamal Bowman or Cori Bush is much more comfortable saying that than Biden. That is the thing about Biden. He basically sets boundaries. He says what his position is and backs off and lets the action happen without his constant commentary. It's very different than Trump in that way too. And that's different than the Sanders position. And it's different than what Warren said her position would be as president.
Can you give us context on how or why you started covering this story?
I started covering the Amazon drive because of the president and members of Congress intervening. I mean, labor decided to get involved months before, but the fact that Democrats were getting involved was new. It has been interesting to monitor their investment in this over other Democratic Party causes.
There's a little bit of intervention from the Democrats, but not, I'd say equal to what Amazon is doing. They are not the advertisements on TV. We all know the Democratic party is kind of involved, but it is not the same political project that I've seen in other places.
There are two stories that kind of were happening at the same time; they have merged, but not completely. One is this labor drive, which is smaller than most drives that have succeeded. It is not overwhelming. You don't see labor signs everywhere you go. But, on the other hand, the level of national involvement is kind of new.
Had Biden said nothing, there would have been a story, but it wouldn't involve the White House, it wouldn't involve the Democratic Party, and it might not involve the PRO Act.
And I think that's going to change because of this.
New interview w/ @daveweigel @PaydayReport
— frank news (@FrankNewsUS) April 6, 2021
"The White House's involvement with the Amazon drive was a big surprise ... Previous presidents, Obama comes to mind, said a lot less. The fact that Biden did that early on is a political statement of what they thought was important." pic.twitter.com/MwYlmqE4xQ
That was a big decision Biden made to be a part of this.
Right. And that political story is interesting. The story here is much more independent. A lot of the people who've come in to help canvas are from smaller groups. You have Black Lives Matter and DSA groups from the area, but you don't have the Democratic Party getting involved in a huge way. I think that is something that people will revisit after the vote.
Should the Democratic Party, like most left parties in the world, be very involved with labor? Should they always take the side of labor?
Most social democratic parties are labor parties and they build up from there. Their coalition includes labor unions. In the British Labour Party, for example, labor has a role in electing the leadership. That is not the case here. That's the conversation I think they're going to start having when this votes over. For example, if there are, and the union says there are, hundreds of people around the country calling them saying, "Hey, I have some questions about what I can do at my fulfillment center in my town," that will be a question for Democrats.
And if Amazon wins, do you get spooked? Amazon has been very punchy in their PR. They might say that a bunch of elite Democrats stood with the union and the workers stood with Amazon. That is very comfortable turf for Amazon to be on, and that leaves a big question open for Democrats. If the union succeeds, throw all of that out the window. I think the lesson that everyone would take in that case would be that if it takes less than a three-minute video from the president to get momentum for something like this, then we should keep doing that. As we talk, I don't know the answer to that question. I think that is something that is going to be answered when the votes are in.
interviews
In Conversation with the Sisters in Law
by Sisters in Law
October 12, 2020
This interview with the Sisters in Law, Valerie Baston, Alisha Darden, Maryellen Hicks, Lakesha Smith, Delonia Watson, and Karen Williams, was conducted and condensed by franknews.
Can you describe what the Sisters in Law is and what your goals are?
Lakesha Smith: We are six African American female attorneys who decided to fill a gap in our community — the gap being the absence of African American female representation in our Tarrant County district courts.
In Tarrant County, we have never elected an African American female to a criminal district court or civil district court. The only African American female we've ever elected in Tarrant County was Maryellen Hicks, a Sister in Law, to a family court in 1981where she served for ten years. Judge Hicks was the first and the last African American female to serve at the district level in Tarrant County. We are ready to add to that list.
Photo via Maryellen Hicks
We value diversity and feel it is critical to create a more diverse judiciary in Tarrant County, especially considering we have such a diverse population. The county is no longer a majority-majority county, it is a minority-majority county. We need more diversity to reflect the makeup of our community and to ensure we have diversity of thought and experiences in our courts.
There are six of us and together we make up the Sisters in Law. We’re excited about what we offer Tarrant County as a whole.
What positions are you each running for?
Lakesha Smith: Karen Williams and I are running for criminal court in the district. Karen is the candidate for criminal district court number 2 and I am the candidate for the 213th district court. Delonia Watson is running for justice for Second Court of Appeals, Place 6. Everyone else is running as a candidate for civil district courts: Alisha Darden is running for the 153rd, Valerie Baston is running for the 342nd, and Maryellen Hicks is running for the 348th.
What has the campaigning process been like?
Valerie Baston: I'm not going to lie. It's been very difficult to campaign during this global pandemic. We've been relying on social media and on tapping into our networks and organizations. We do try to get to events that observe CDC guidelines so we can meet people and let them know we're running. We want people to know who we are and what our platform is about because it is so important that people know that they have a choice in this election. Normally in Tarrant County, you don't see anyone who isn’t a Republican running for office.
But, Tarrant County is a diverse county. The state of Texas is a diverse state. We have different ethnicities, different races, different religions, and gender identities. I feel like it's time for Tarrant County to have a judiciary that actually reflects the community.
The RNC is dumping money into Texas. What do you think that indicates?
Valeria Baston: When Beto ran for US Senate, Tarrant County went blue. Beto came to Tarrant County, put in the work, and as a result, Tarrant County went blue.
Right now, the polls are showing that Trump and Biden are very close. Republicans are concerned and they are right to be concerned. This administration has not taken COVID seriously here in Texas. Our local Republican leadership hasn't taken COVID seriously. Republicans understand that even their base doesn't like where we have been going as a state, and as a nation.
Republicans don't want to lose Texas because we have a lot of electoral votes. They don't want to lose the House or the Senate seats in the Texas Congress, and they definitely don't want to lose the judiciary.
Lakesha Smith: In addition, the governor is up for election in the next cycle. As Valerie said, Beto won Tarrant County, which was huge. Alarm bells are going off because Democrats are threatening their power structure.
Governor Abbott has an interest in maintaining power in places like Tarrant County. When you see a presidential race pouring money into Texas, you know the Republicans are worried — and that is exactly what we are seeing.
The appointment process here is a testament to the existing power structure. Right now, Republican judges step down early, so that Governor Greg Abbott's power is triggered and he can appoint the judge. Then, when these judges eventually go on the ballot in subsequent races, they are on the ballot as an incumbent. It gives them an advantage.
Maryellen Hicks: There are no Democrats on a district-level court, which is the highest trial court, or the appellate court that Ms. Watson is running for.
Right now, the courts are packed with Republicans, many of whom are members of the Federalist Society or are closely aligned with the Tea Party.
Are you worried about voter suppression on election day? Texas notoriously has had horrible gerrymandering and broad strokes of voter suppression that are very obvious, but are there things in Tarrant County specifically that you are looking for?
Karen Williams: We are definitely worried about voter suppression here. We are constantly reminding people to register to vote, and pushing people to vote in the early time period. We have two weeks of early voting prior to the general election, so we are encouraging people to go out and vote early.
We want to make sure that people get out and vote early. And in any case, whatever day that they choose to go and vote, we want people to know not to expect to go in and get out in five minutes. Be prepared to take some time so that if you do have to wait, you can wait.
How do you make sure people feel like they understand their voting rights? And what do you want to see from the media, in particular?
Delonia Watson: The Biden campaign has hundreds of attorneys ready to make sure that every voter's vote matters, but it is a very real threat that some of these issues will go to court. We have to make sure that we have a judiciary that is independent, and will not permit their ideology to control the law, but instead will apply the law fairly.
Lakesha Smith: In terms of the media, I don't think it's so much the media’s responsibility to take a side as to who's right, and who's wrong. But right now, I think it's very important to get out voter education and allow the voters to understand the issues that impact leadership in their local elections. When people hear about these things, they can come to their own conclusion about how the government is usurping the rights of the voters. Voters need to understand how the government has found a way to manipulate elections.
Are you paying attention to polling? Can you see where voter registration and enthusiasm, especially for nonwhite voters, stands in Tarrant County?
Lakesha Smith: Texas has registered over 2 million new voters. I can't speak to the demographics, but I feel confident based on conversations with voters that there’s enthusiasm to vote. Our base has been energized, unfortunately by the actions of the president. People are encouraged to get out and vote.
Delonia Watson: We are seeing a significant amount of excitement from people. People are galvanized. People are posting things about us, people are passing out flyers for us. People are excited about seeing a judiciary that looks more and more like them.
Karen Williams: Voter registration and voter turnout are up this year from the last presidential election. The Democratic vote and voter turnout were up by 14% in our primaries this year. In Tarrant County, the Democrats out voted the Republicans. Since the primary, there has been a lot more voter registration and the polls are saying that a lot more people are planning to vote Democratic. It goes beyond the people we are talking to.