Teamsters and Techies, The New Progressive Coalition

When the founder of a popular blog jumped out of an 18-wheeler and shook hands with the Teamsters president in front of 1,500 cheering bloggers, you knew something was happening.

Teamster President Jim Hoffa and DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga - Teamsters and Techies - had cemented their relationship as the new progressive coalition. See Hoffa's speech here or Markos' speech here.

The scene was the union's cookout in Chicago during the YearlyKos blogger convention. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters sponsored the event and 100 rank-and-file Teamsters from Chicagoland attended.

"A lot of you don't know anybody in the labor movement," Hoffa said. "That's why we're meeting today because we share the same goals."

Kos - who said riding in the truck made him feel like a 12-year-old - told the crowd that there's no better way to reach people than through unions. "These guys are helping us become a new movement that's growing," he said.

Hoffa, a contributor to the Huffington Post, knows the power of the blogosphere - and he knows that workers need that power.

Early, during the convention I led a roundtable discussion on workers and the global supply chain. The only reason you hear the term global supply chain today is because the "race to the bottom" by multinational corporations has succeeded. Once an outpost of exploitation has been established, the logistics of moving cheap product to wealthy buyer moves forward.

One great idea that came up during the discussion was for workers and consumers to demand a "Clean Supply Chain." That is, a supply chain that is free of worker or environmental exploitation.

We know that the reason good jobs are leaving the U.S. is because greedy corporations can exploit, with the backing of the U.S. and foreign governments, workers in every corner of the world. We also know that companies pay low wages, ignore safety standards, and provide no benefits because they can - not because they can't afford to do better.

Teamsters and Techies have the responsibility to join together to expose bad employers and hold them accountable to their workers, shareholders and consumers.

And once they are exposed - the U.S. government and the American consumer have the responsibility to hold bad employers accountable.