Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Editorial

OUR VOICES: DISRESPECT AND DECEPTION: We’re Looking at You Tim Scott and Eric Johnson

By Claude Cummings

Claude Cummings, Jr., International President, Communications Workers of America

As this is being written, I have proudly represented Communications Workers of America’s members during the 52nd Annual Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Legislative Conference. Since its inception, the CBC has passionately sup- ported the interests of the Black community and worked to ensure that we have an equal voice in public policy. And its members, currently all Democrats, have been equally powerful al- lies of labor unions as vehicles of racial justice.

At the same time, I was deeply disappointed to learn of the actions of two other high-pro- file Black elected officials: U.S. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, a Republican, and Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, a former Democrat. I have characterized their bad behavior, respectively, as Disrespect and Deception.

Let’s start with the “Disrespect” that Tim Scott exhibited toward members of the United Auto Workers. Scott, one of two Black Senators and the only Republican, is now a low-polling challenger to frontrunner Donald Trump for his party’s presidential nomination.

When asked to comment on the UAW strike, he responded: “You strike, you’re fired!” He went on to cite Ronald Reagan’s controversial firing of striking air traffic controllers back in 1981. In his decision, Reagan invoked a law prohibiting strikes by federal employees.

Well, Mr. Scott, the UAW strikers, led by President Shawn Fain, are not government employees and are not subject to that law. Their right to strike is protected by the National Labor Relations Act. They are hard-working people who made great concessions almost 15 years ago to help save the American auto industry and keep family-supporting jobs in their communities.

Their sacrifices brought the industry back with record-breaking profits that largely supported very generous salaries and bonuses for their bosses and huge returns for Wall Street investors. But the workers’ well-deserved demands to restore their benefits and wages and ensure equal pay for equal work went unmet for years.

That’s why I’ll be on the UAW picket line in Detroit on Tuesday when Joe Biden becomes the first American president to join striking workers on the line. Yes, Joe not only talks the talk. He walks the walk of a real “union guy.” And we must return that loyalty in the 2024 election.

Now to the blatant “Deception” of Dallas mayor Eric Johnson, who recently switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican. As shocking as this may have been to those constituents whom he deceived into supporting him for a second term in a solidly blue city, it was not surprising to me.

As a politically observant Texan, I saw how he had used the Democratic label for years to get elected and then pushed a GOP agenda – espousing their hard line on issues from law-and-order to tax cuts. The party switch just confirmed the way he had been leading for years, while strongly criticizing his former party’s governance of cities.

But Houston’s Major Sylvester Turner, who was also unaware of Johnson’s deception, cites his own record in Houston in reducing crime, homelessness and addressing other urban challenges firmly, but more compassionately. “Democratic mayors are the boots on the ground,” he says. “We are responding to people’s needs.”

Eric Johnson’s betrayal of loyal supporters in Dallas raises a red flag in Houston too. Much like Johnson, a mayoral candidate in Houston appears to be counting on the loyalty of some Labor supporters and other mainstream progressives while adding poisonous side elements of anti-worker, anti-jus- tice, and forced birthers funded by pay-to-play partisan Republicans.

So how do we respond to these perpetrators of disrespect and deception? First, we let Senator Scott know that union members across this country will not forget his uninformed and dismissive response to the UAW’s legitimate strike for fair- ness.

As for Mayor Johnson, what- ever he plans to do after his tenure is over, we will make sure no one forgets his treachery in Dallas and that he is a politician who can never ever be trusted. And all the while, we must be on guard to make sure Johnson’s betrayal in Dallas doesn’t serve as a political template in the upcoming Houston Mayoral election or anywhere else.

Written By

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

IMM MASK Promos

You May Also Like

Editorial

By Kenneth L. Hardin I was never great at math so I won’t pretend to do it here. But the 71, 35 and 31...

News

In his sixth State of the City address, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson presented an optimistic view of the city’s achievements and the priorities that...

Editorial

By John Fullinwider I am trying to understand Presidential politics in terms of progress and backlash. Richard Nixon and George Wallace were the backlash...

Editorial

By Dr. John E. Warren On May 17, 1957, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was among a number of Civil Rights leaders who gathered...

Advertisement