Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, has announced that the union is officially endorsing the health care legislation released today.
The AFL-CIO is “putting all we have into this landmark legislation, and it will pass,” Trumka said during an afternoon conference call. The call came after the executive council voted to endorse the legislation, with a nearly unanimous vote, Trumka said.
The move was not unexpected, but is a boon to President Obama and the Democrats. Trumka met with Obama at the White House yesterday, but refused to give details on the meeting.
Part of pushing for the bill means targeting wavering Democrats and trying to convince them to vote yes.
In the meeting, “we talked about all the undecideds right now. We will be making house calls, visits, phone calls,” he said, saying leaders at all levels will be making the calls. “When we decide we’re supporting a bill we go all out …And that’s what we’re doing here.”
Asked about changes to the excise tax, or Cadillac plan tax, which unions have fought, Trumka said at least one change, the CPI, doesn’t go into effect until 2020.
“We have 10 years to change something,” he said. He added that he was proud that “85 percent” of the excise tax had been removed.
“We’ve been able to make this bill much more progressive,” he said. “We don’t think this is the end of health care reform. We think this is a good first step.”
