Bush Must Go, Says Labor

By: Bill Straub

Gerald McEntee, the fiery president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, was typically blunt this summer when he urged his fellow union members to "commit ourselves to putting George Bush out of work in 2004".

"American workers are under attack by an anti-worker President who didn't even win the election for the office he holds", McEntee said.

Ticking off a list of what he views as the administration's assault on organized labor, ranging from last year's $1.3 trillion tax cut to the decision to kill ergonomic regulations, McEntee said the "real threat in this country comes from an administration that shuns working families and sides with big business - like Enron, Global Crossing, Tyco, Arthur Andersen, and so many more".

While McEntee is recognized as one of labor's most confrontational voices, his analysis jibes with the consensus among union leaders that Bush, in the words of AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, is sealing his position as "the worst President for working people in 50 years".

Bush and organized labor have butted heads since the outset of the administration with a ferocity rarely seen in Washington. The harsh feelings haven't ebbed, and union leaders are gearing up to defeat Republicans in the coming election and to defeat the President in two years.

The relationship has become so acrimonious that the International Association of Fire Fighters approved a non-binding resolution asking its leadership to protest the President's withholding of $100 million to improve communications systems for emergency workers.

"Working Americans want a President who prioritizes their needs and finds a balance between big business and working people", Sweeney said. "President George W. Bush has not measured up."

For his part, the nation's first President with an MBA is doing his best to ignore Sweeney, McEntee, and the groups they lead. When Bush convened a forum in Waco, Texas, in August to review the nation's fiscal woes, organized labor wasn't offered a seat at the table.

Bush and labor began slugging it out even before Bush assumed office. Most of the nation's unions, including the Teamsters, who have engaged in some rapprochement with the administration, endorsed Bush's foe in the 2000 presidential campaign, Al Gore.

And union leaders hopped on Bush's initial choice to lead the U.S. Department of Labor, Linda Chavez, because they thought she had an anti-labor slant. She subsequently withdrew when questions were raised about her failure to set aside Social Security payments for a domestic worker. Elaine Chao, the wife of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), became the Secretary of Labor.

In his first 100 days, Sweeney said, Bush took 28 actions that "catered to big business at the expense of working men and women".

The most significant was the President's decision to scrap ergonomic rules dealing with repetitive motion injuries that were 10 years in the making, explaining they would harm business.

The administration has since issued revised rules that provide voluntary guidelines and permit employers to set their own safety rules.

"Workers depending on voluntary guidelines developed by the big corporations for workplace safety protections is like depending on an Enron 401(k) plan for your retirement security - nobody gets hurt in the boardroom, but workers lose everything", said Doug Dority, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

The animosity and heated rhetoric has continued, with a short truce after Sept. 11. Organized labor fought the President's successful effort to obtain congressional approval of fast-track trade negotiation authority.

A new battle is brewing. Bush has threatened to veto legislation establishing a new Department of Homeland Security if it doesn't enable him to move employees unimpeded by union agreements.

"I need for my Secretary to be able to move people to different agencies, if need be, to protect America", Bush said. "We need to put people in the right place at the right time."

Sweeney argues the administration's initiative would serve to "undermine the basic rights and protection of the thousands of government workers who will continue to serve their country in that new agency".