I want to share with you all our endorsement today of Sen. Barack Obama. Seth Michaels on our staff has the details below.

The AFL-CIO today endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president.

The AFL-CIO General Board, which voted to endorse Obama, includes presidents of all 56 unions in the AFL-CIO, as well as Executive Council members and representatives of state and local federations, trade departments and constituency groups. The General Board votes by per capita membership. In conjunction with the endorsement, the AFL-CIO launched a new website: Meet Barack Obama.

It's becoming self-evident that certain segments of the Democratic Party are revising historical voting trends to shoehorn spin this cycle. Memes regarding one candidate's "base"--a leading candidate in our party--have taken to calling blue collar voters "swing voters."

Having turned 50 a few months back, and also being a Party activist in years past, as well as a Poli Sci major in college--and one with a high regard for 20th Century U.S. History--I always associated blue collar voters with unions (i.e.: "the Union vote").

Now, somehow, Union members--almost all being considered under the dual status of "blue collar"--are being referenced as self-styled "swing voters" (not in their candidate's camp) by many in support of a certain candidate within our Party.

This week I wrote about the Kaiser Permanente / Inter-Con Security Security Guard strike.

The post Security Guards Striking for the Right to Have Our Laws Enforced discussed why the guards are striking.  They are employees of Inter-Con Security, Inc., which contracts services to Kaiser Permanente facilities in California.  This company (not Kaiser) is trying to stop the guards from forming a union and the guards are striking to ask that laws allowing union organizing be enforced.

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I am proud to be helping SEIU spread the word about this strike.  

Anyone who has read a poll knows that the economy is the #1 concern for young people today, but what does that mean in terms of the policies they would support?  The Center for American Progress just issued a new report that sheds light on this not-often-explored intersection of demographics and policy.  The report - The Progressive Generation: How Young Adults Think About the Economy - does much to dispel myths (like the one that says young people are gung-ho about Social Security Privatization), and clarifies the position of Millennials on a number of issues.  The report provides some rays of hope to the labor movement, and has a lot to say not just about the economy, but really what Millennials think about the role of government in America.  

This should be mandatory reading for campaigns, the Party, and anyone seeking to understand the political beliefs of the youngest generation.  Here are the major findings:

• Millennials are more likely to support universal health coverage than any age group in the 30 previous years the question has been asked, with 57 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds saying that health insurance should come from a government insurance plan.
  


• Eighty-seven percent of Millennials think the government should spend more money on health care even if a tax increase is required to pay for it, the highest level of support in the question's 20-year history.
  


• An overwhelming 95 percent of Millennials think education spending should be increased even if a tax increase is required to pay for it, the highest level ever recorded on this question in the 20 years it has been asked.
  
• Sixty-one percent of Millennials think the government should provide more services, the most support of any age group in any of the previous 20 years the question was asked.


• When asked in the General Social Survey whether they were in favor or against the idea that cutting government was a good way to help the economy, Millennials had the lowest support of cutting government spending in the history of the question.


• Millennials are very supportive of  labor unions, giving them an average ranking of 60 on a 0-to-100 scale (with 0 indicating a more negative view of labor unions and 100 being a more positive view), the second-highest level of support of any age group in the over 40-year history of the question.

For the more graphically inclined, here's what that looks like in graphs:

The exact phrase Obama made was, "I don't want to go into the next election starting off with half the country already not wanting to vote for Democrats; we've done that in 2004, 2000."

That was Obama continuing his attack theme on Senator Clinton as his example of "politics of the past" in Central Iowa before the first Caucus.  His extension of the "generation of the past" that he used extensively in New Hampshire.  And he wonders why he has a problem with the Democratic base, mature adults and Seniors?

I have been writing about the strike by California Kaiser Permanente security guards working for contractor Inter-Con Security, who are demanding that laws be enforced and their rights be honored.

SEIU sent out a press release on the situation, titled, Workers With No Healthcare Protecting Kaiser Facilities, Security Contractor May Be Misleading California's Largest Healthcare Provider.  In summary, the security guards at Kaiser are supposed to be provided with individual healthcare after working for 90 days, but it turns out that many are not.  The security contractor Inter-Con Security has found a way around the promise: they classify workers as "on-call" instead of permanent.

As more and more workers report that Inter-Con is keeping workers on temporary or "on-call" status for months or years, it's still unclear whether Inter-Con is misleading Kaiser or if Kaiser is simply turning a blind eye to these tactics which short-change workers.

And their families are not provided with health insurance at all.  The security guards -- paid as little as $10.40 an hour -- are supposed to buy it.  The result is that 41% of the officers who responded to a survey cannot.  And without paid sick days they cannot afford to take the time off to see a doctor anyway.

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I am proud to be helping SEIU spread the word about this strike.  

SEIU bringing their considerable resources to bear on behalf of progressives in Democratic primaries could dramatically improve our party. Nate

Ned Lamont.  Donna Edwards.  Jon Tester.

Some of the most important moments in our emerging progressive movement have come during primary election campaigns.  It's in large part where we have the most leverage to shape the face of the Democratic Party.

That's why SEIU is set to endorse a "Justice for All" platform during our June Convention -- a plan that includes $150 million and a 1/4 of our organizing staff budgeted to win health care, restore the middle class, work towards ending the war, and hold politicians accountable AFTER the election.

This also includes SEIU running and RECRUITING primary challenges in some cases.  We consider our support of Donna Edwards to be a dramatic preview of the "Accountability Project."

Learn more about the central issues in the campaign, and how this works.

You should also know that in addition to Donna Edwards,  SEIU sponsored a group of relatively unknown pro-worker candidates who ousted seven incumbent Chicago Alderman allied with the Chicago Mayor Daley political machine.

We really hope to foster a partnership with you in this project.  SEIU is already a founding member of "They work for us," and we see this as a financial and organizational extension of that commitment.

I'll be around to answer any questions you might have about the program.

~Michelle Ringuette, speaking for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

Yesterday I wrote about the security guards who are striking at Kaiser Permanente because their contractor-employer is engaging in illegal tactics while trying to block them from forming a union.  The guards work for Inter-Con Security Inc., which is contracted by Kaiser to provide security services.