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Bush Approval Plunges In New Poll
A new Harris Poll shows President
Bush's approval ratings fell 12 points in
the last two months.
In a poll taken 2/12-16/03, only 52% of
the respondents said President Bush was
doing an excellent or good job.
Forty-six percent rated his performance
as fair or poor. In the last Harris
poll taken Dec. 12-16, 2002, 64% rate
Bush's performance as excellent or good
and 35% said it was fair or poor.
World Bank: Unions Can Improve Economies
A country's economy may fare better if a
large number of its workers belong to
trade unions, the World Bank said in a
study that marked a departure from
the institution's traditional frosty
approach to organized labor.
The report, released on Wednesday, found
that high unionization rates can lead to
lower unemployment and inflation rates,
higher productivity and faster adjustment
to economic shocks.
"The bank in the past has perhaps
been hostile to trade unions, and the
thing with this book is that it wants to
have a very open and nuanced approach,
different from the past," Robert
Holzmann, the bank's director of social
protection, told Reuters. "So no
blank check to trade unions but a major
offer to work with them because they're
crucial."
The report said union members in rich and
poor countries alike get significantly
higher average wages than workers who are
not affiliated with a trade union.
In the United States, wages can be 15
percent higher for union members while in
other industrialized countries, they are
between 5 and 10 percent higher. The
benefits of union membership can vary in
middle-income and developing countries.
The study also found that union
participation can reduce wage gaps between
skilled and unskilled workers and also
between men and women.
Bush Support for 2004 Dips Below 50%
The share of Americans favoring President
Bush's reelection in 2004 has fallen below
50%, while Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman of
Connecticut and John F. Kerry of
Massachusetts have emerged as the leaders
for the Democratic nomination to oppose
him, a new Los Angeles Times poll has
found.
Just 45% of registered voters said they
are now likely to support Bush for
reelection, while 40% said they were
inclined to back the Democratic nominee,
the survey found. Fifteen percent said
they don't now lean in either direction.
As recently as December, just over half
of the adults in a Times poll said they
would likely support Bush for reelection
in a question that was phrased slightly
differently.
Though opinions are likely to change
several times before voters go to the
polls in 2004, the new results suggest
that the close partisan balance that
defined American politics before the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks is slowly reasserting
itself.
"We are a country that is roughly
split," said Dowd, the RNC pollster,
"and very polarized."
Bush Rule Change Could End Some Overtime
A Bush administration overhaul of
decades-old labor regulations could force
many Americans to work longer hours
without overtime pay.
The administration argues that the
pillars of American labor law, which
established the 40-hour work week, a
minimum wage and overtime pay, are
antiquated.
The changes, Labor Department officials
say, would make more lower-income workers
eligible for overtime.
But labor unions fear changes would
severely restrict who is legally required
to be paid for overtime work.
"Nothing prohibits employers from
requiring as many hours as they want,''
said Chris Owens, public policy director
for the AFL-CIO. "The overtime pay
requirement is the only thing that acts as
a brake on excessive work hours.''
It is just one of several changes the
administration is pursuing to workplace
regulations and programs, including the
Family Medical Leave Act, job training
programs and unemployment insurance.
The overtime changes are confined to a
section of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards
Act that defines blue-collar and
white-collar workers and determines who
must be paid an hourly rate of
time-and-a-half for working beyond 40
hours a week. About 80 million workers now
are covered by the overtime rules.
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GOP-Still
the Party of Big Business
Fundraising statistics compiled by
the Center for Responsive Politics show
that of the top ten most politically
generous industries, eight gave a majority
of their contributions to the Republican
party.
Only the communications and electronics
industry, which gave 63 percent of its
contributions to Democrats, and lawyers
who gave 93 percent of their contributions
to Democrats, bucked the trend.
The agribusiness, construction, defense,
energy, and financial services industries,
among several others, gave the bulk of
their money to the GOP.
Labor Law
Labor Secretary Describes Financial Forms
Filed by Unions as 'Virtually Meaningless'
Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao Jan. 31
described the annual financial forms
unions are required to file under the
Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure
Act as "virtually meaningless."
In an address to a meeting of the American
Conservative Union, Chao defended her
agency's proposed changes to union
financial accounting forms, known as the
LM-2, against charges that the effort is
" 'antiunion.' Nothing could be
further from the truth,' " she said,
describing the proposal as
"pro-union-member."
"All of that has got to
change," Chao said, emphasizing that
union members "need to know their
rights and have the ability to exercise
them." Despite the U.S. Supreme
Court's 1988 decision in Communications
Workers of America v. Beck (1487 U.S. 735,
28 LRRM 2729), "few workers are even
aware" that they have "the right
to refuse to subsidize political
activities through union representation
fees," Chao asserted. While it is
"still a tough legal battle,"
she said, "one day the Beck
decision will truly be the law of the land."
President Bush in February 2001 issued
Executive Order 13201 requiring
federal contractors to notify
union-represented employees who pay agency
fees in lieu of union dues that they need
not contribute to union expenditures that
are unrelated to collective bargaining,
contract administration, or the adjustment
of grievances. The administration
currently is appealing a district court's
finding that the order is invalid.
The Bush Credibility Gap
Fiscal Responsibility
Bush Says: "One of the ways we've
got to make sure that we keep our economy
strong is to be wise about how we spend
our money. If you overspend, it creates a
fundamental weakness in the foundation of
economic growth. And so I'm working with
Congress to make sure they hear the
message -- the message of fiscal
responsibility." -Bush, 9/16/02
Bush Does: Less than 6 months after
this pronouncement, Bush proposed a budget
that would put the government more than
$300 billion into deficit. As National
Journal noted on 2/12/02, Bush's own 2004
budget tables show that without Bush's tax
and budgetary proposals, the deficit would
decline after 2006, but with Bush's
proposals the deficit would grow
indefinitely.
(Excerpts from House Appropriations
Committee Dems. special report, The
Credibility Gap, 02/14/03)
HAVE DEFICITS LOST THEIR POLITICAL
STING? NOT LIKELY
73% of Americans Are Concerned About
Deficits That Could Result from the Bush
Budget Proposal
"After a few golden years of
surpluses, deficits are back with a
vengeance. Though he ran for office
promising to keep the government treasury
in the black, [President] Bush's budget
proposal predicts deficits of more than
$300 billion through 2004 - and doesn't
envision a new surplus in any year before
a second Bush term would end. Bush claims
he made it clear in the 2000 campaign that
he would accept deficits in times of war,
recession or national emergency, though
White House staffers have failed to find
an instance when he actually said
that...."
"But the public may not be quite
so easy to placate. A TIME/CNN poll
conducted last week shows that 73% of
Americans are either 'very' or 'somewhat'
concerned about deficits that could result
from the Bush budget proposal. More than a
third - 36% - think the Bush plan will
make the economy worse, while only 27%
think it will make the economy better. And
fully 55% of the respondents describe
economic conditions today as 'poor' or
'very poor' - the highest figure since
December 1993.
Retirees Losing Benefits From
Bankruptcy
The nation's persistent economic slump
and rash of corporate scandals that have
drained cash from pension plans and 401(k)
accounts are eating into yet another piece
of retirees' livelihood: their health
benefits.
Thousands of retired workers who were
promised lifetime health care coverage by
their former companies have lost those
benefits as a growing list of firms have
folded or been sold.
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Tell-a-friend!