Trumka and popular economics?

Esquire has a piece on "Man of the Year" Richard Trumka. The article contains a full serving of economic populism.

Labor's last stand

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka declared labor would distance itself from Democrats unsupportive of labor's agenda. This pronouncement was treated as news by some, but it isn't really a new position. Just ask former Arkansas senator Blanche Lincoln. But Meyerson's WaPO opinion piece places the move in proper context, and the context is a bleak one for labor.

Trumka: Unions will be outspent

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says for the 2010 midterms, he expects unions to be out spent 20-1 by "corporate groups aligned with Republicans."

Trumka says . . . .

The Hill reports AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka predicted yesterday that both EFCA and healthcare reform would pass in 2010. Taken at face value, a prediction by a labor leader that card check will pass appears more like whistling past a cemetery than likely to occur. But Trumka's actual remarks did not refer to EFCA, rather he predicted "labor reform" would pass. If labor revises its agenda to push quicker elections,  stiffer penalties for violations and union access to employees at work, Mr. Trumka could be correct.

EFCA follows healthcare

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka admits to the Wall Street Journal healthcare legislation is a higher priority for labor than EFCA.

Trumka asks for investigation

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka asks for state insurance commissioners to investigate whether the cost of the industry's lobbying against healthcare reform is tied to rate hikes. "We believe that health insurance providers' lobbying expenditures have led to excessive rate hikes," Trumka wrote in a letter to state regulators.

Mr. Trumka goes to Wall Street

The New York Times reports that AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka speaking to a "modest" audience excoriated Wall Street "Apostles of Greed."