Examples of where the Dem leadership fails to serve w.c. interests, w/little or no protest, or with the explicit acquiesence of the AFL? My usual litany.
Budget & tax policy. The AFL fails to contradict dogma about debt reduction. For that matter, neither does Nathan.
Shrinking government. The AFL failed to mount a campaign against "reinventing government," the practical effect of which has been to reduce regular Federal employment in favor of contracting out.
Free trade. Here there are some high profile votes where the Dems support labor, and others where they decide it is tactically prudent to leave the AFL hanging.
Fed supremacy. No serious (I mean with proposals to restructure the Fed) criticism of A. Greenspan.
Defense. Dems rolled over for Clinton support of defense spending increases and the missile shield, greasing the skids for Cheney's proposals.
Nathan is right to point to the regulatory area as one where the Dems have been better for labor, relatively speaking. But this leaves a lot else.
mbs
. . . Other than that, I'd like anyone on the list to mention a top priority bill backed or opposed by Labor where a majority of Dems in Congress did not support the union side of the issue?