|
8/29/03
E
Messenger
The
Electronic Newsletter of the
Florida
AFL-CIO
New
Members according to the AFL-CIO Work in Progress|
This week's WIP: 1,941
Year to date: 102,495
LABOR
DAY IS HERE!
This
is it…our day! A day when
Americans are supposed to sit back, relax and celebrate the amazing gains
and contributions made by the Labor Movement to our nation and our
society. Where would we be
without the labor movement? Well,
we would have no limits on the work week, no weekends, child labor, no
public schools, no health care benefits, no social security, no Medicare,
no middle class…in fact we would be right where we were in 1929!
This weekend, amidst all of the sun and fun, take a few minutes and
spend some time with your family (especially your kids and grandkids)
talking about all of the things that unions have given us, things that we
too often take for granted.
HAPPY
LABOR FROM THE OFFICERS AND STAFF OF THE
FLORIDA
AFL-CIO!
Remarks
by President Sweeney at Labor Day Reporter Roundtable
As we come to Labor Day
2003, working
America
is facing a crisis. It’s a
jobs crisis and it’s the number 1 issue facing Americans.
Despite our so-called recovery, far too many people are out of work
and many have been out of work for a long time.
White collar as well as blue-collar employees
are losing jobs, and many of these jobs aren’t coming back.
And executives are slashing health care and retirement benefits.
President Bush has pulled the rug out from under
America
’s working people and rolled out a red carpet for the wealthy and giant
corporations.
There has been more net job loss under Bush than under any President since
Herbert Hoover. One Nobel prize
winning economist recently called the Bush economic policies the worst in
200 years, adding that the Bush tax cuts that predominantly benefited a
wealthy few will mean a 10-year budget deficit of nearly 6 trillion
dollars.
For the same money that Bush spent on millionaire tax breaks, he COULD
have stimulated the economy and created jobs by building roads and
schools, helped provide much-needed health care, sent urgently-needed aid
to the states, and given tax breaks to the low and middle income earners
who need it and will spend it to get the economy moving.
Labor Day was established to get respect for workers and curb abuse by
setting the eight-hour day. Workers have struggled to put
protections for workers into place for 150 years, and the result has been
a solid middle class and more time for families. But now the Bush
Administration is trying to take away protections against excessive hours
by excluding as many as 8 million workers from overtime pay.
There’s a disturbing pattern here.
Employers are hiring fewer workers here in the U.S. and working
them longer – and now the Bush administration is trying to make it
cheaper for them to work employees even longer with its proposed changes
to overtime rules. A vote on
an amendment to block the Bush regulations is expected to take place in
the Senate next week, and we are working very hard to build support for
that amendment.
In fact, Bush has attacked worker protections every chance
he’s gotten. He has slashed
health and safety protections, denied Homeland
Security department and federal screeners the basic freedom to form
unions, and is trying to privatize Medicare and Social Security.
In the face of the most anti-worker Administration in decades,
America
’s workers are struggling to get a leg up in this economy - - and many
are trying to form unions. Half
a million workers formed a union last year with one of our 64 union
affiliates, and over 3 million workers have formed unions since 1995.
Although the pace of new organizing is still not where we want it
to be, it is far greater than many people realize and greater than it has
been in decades.
This year, we expect to see major organizing efforts among health care
workers, roofers in
Arizona
,
California
farm workers, auto
workers, and state workers in
New Mexico
,
Illinois
and
New Jersey
.
The Cintas laundry workers are fighting
for a union with UNITE and the Teamsters
- - Cintas is the nation’s
largest industrial laundry, and the workers are organizing in dozens of
cities across the
U.S.
Workers are organizing because, with a union, working people win basic
rights, such as a say in their jobs, safety and security.
An Economic Policy Institute paper released earlier this week
showed that unions raise compensation, including wages and benefits, by 28
percent. And it showed that
unions raise wages for workers without a union as well.
A high school graduate without a union will see a bigger paycheck
just because he or she is working in an industry that’s more than a
quarter unionized.
What’s important to know is that more than 40 million Americans say they
would form a union tomorrow - - but too few will ever have that chance.
Cornell research shows that 95 percent of private-sector employers
fight their workers’ efforts to organize a union -- often breaking the
law. Three-quarters of
employers force workers to sit through closed-door meetings against the
union. Half illegally
threaten to shut down if their workers choose a union, and a quarter
illegally fire union supporters.
What employers do is shameful and wrong - - and our communities suffer.
When fewer workers have unions, the standard of living falls for
everyone and the gap between the rich and poor grows.
That’s why this Labor Day, we’re launching
a major campaign to build nationwide support for workers’ freedom to
choose a union. In city after
city, community and elected leaders are joining with unions to stand with
workers who are trying to form unions, and calling on employers to honor
this basic American right. Local
union leaders are organizing roundtables for workers who are struggling to
organize to sit down with elected officials
– and in fact, all the Democratic candidates for President
will meet with workers who are forming unions.
Most of those worker roundtables have already taken place.
The AFL-CIO is also joining in the Immigrant Workers’ Freedom Ride to
support immigrant rights, including their freedom to organize unions.
More than 60 buses, filled with workers and immigrant rights
advocates, will converge here in DC and then in
New York City
in early October.
And after watching the disastrous policies of the Bush Administration,
union members are ready to take on the challenge of electing a working
people’s president. We’re
planning the largest and earliest education and mobilization effort ever
for the 2004 elections. In
2002, 93 percent of union members say they received election information
from union sources, including from fellow union members at the workplace.
We will meet that, and top it, in 2004.
The AFL-CIO just held our Presidential forum in early August and, as you
know, some unions have already endorsed Dick Gephardt.
Many unions are still going through a membership education and
polling process to find out which Democratic candidate -- if any -- they
want to support.
We also asked President Bush to speak to our AFL-CIO Executive Council in
August or at any time of his choosing this summer, and he declined.
While we tend to work more closely with Democratic presidents who
share a progressive working families agenda,
the AFL-CIO has always had a relationship with Republican administrations
too --- until this one. George
Bush is the first president with whom the president of the AFL-CIO has
never met since our founding – and I personally think that is a
travesty.
Next week in
Detroit
, I plan to announce the
formation of a new union -- Working America - - which will be directly
affiliated with the AFL-CIO. There
are millions of working people who would like to be part of the
AFL-CIO’s efforts for social justice and who want a voice to speak out
and work to change the direction of this country.
Working
America
will give them that chance.
We will recruit for Working America in communities nationwide,
including knocking on doors to build support for an even bigger push for
legislation and policies which help working families.
It will focus on national, as well as state and local legislation.
Finally, let me just say that I travel this country constantly.
People are very dissatisfied with the way this country is going.
They want jobs and the ability to make a bread
and butter living. They want
affordable health care, and they want their basic freedoms honored on the
job. This Labor Day, the
union movement is determined to continue to lead the fight for a better
America
.
Union
leaders not optimistic about economy this Labor Day
Sacrament Bee
8/29/03
Labor
chief hits Bush's record
Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel
8/29/03
Union
Heads Say Work Remains on Economy
AP
8/29/03
AFL-CIO
to expand movement
A.F.L.-C.I.O.
Begins Group for Workers Not in Unions
The
New York
Times
8/29/03
AFL-CIO
launches nonunion group Working America is for workers who agree with
labor issues
St. Paul
Pioneer Press
How
many can you have before they are not “special” sessions?
Palm Beach
Post: Restrict
any new session
Palm Beach
Post Editorial
Wednesday, August 27,
2003
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/opinion_f3b44d31817bd06d0033.html
THE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/6644058.htm
Texas
Standoff
While 11 Texas Democrats sit and wait outside state lines,
Tom DeLay is setting a new standard for
gerrymandering.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/27/opinion/27WED4.html?th
Leaders
of
California
's
Largest Union Vote to Raise Large Amounts to Defeat
Davis
Recall
The
leadership of
California
's
most powerful labor union, which has more than two million members,
promised to spend millions on an anti-recall campaign.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/27/national/27RECA.html?th
Davis,
Bustamante Edge Closer in Calif.
Seattle
Times
8/27/03
GOP
split on Schwarzenegger
Chicago
Tribune
8/27/03
Calif.
AFL-CIO Endorses Bustamante as Davis Backup
The
Washington
Post
8/27/03
Schwarzenegger
Is Pressed for His Views on Social Issues
Facing aggressive questioning, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the
actor-turned-candidate-for-governor, was forced to lay out his positions
on a range of contentious issues.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/28/national/28RECA.html?th
No
celebration for federal workers this Labor Day…thanks George!
Statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney On
Bush's Cutting Federal Workers' Raises
August
27, 2003
President Bush's
announcement this afternoon that he will slash raises for federal workers
is shameful, and makes clear that Bush
is making federal employees pay for his own fiscal recklessness.
While Bush is cutting workers' wages in the name of fighting
terrorism, he has meanwhile pushed through unaffordable millionaire tax
cuts that do nothing to create jobs and which worsen our nation's long
term economic prospects. One
Nobel prize winning economist recently called
the Bush economic policies the worst in 200 years, adding that the Bush
tax cuts for a wealthy few will mean a 10-year budget deficit of nearly 6
trillion dollars. Clearly,
Bush's irresponsible fiscal policies make it harder - -not easier - -
for us to meet the challenges we face at home and
abroad.
Bush
Cites 'National Emergency' to Limit Federal Workers' Raises
The LA Times
8/28/03
Medicare
bill still on hold…good!
Bill
on Medicare Drug Benefit Is Stalled by House-Senate Republican
Disagreement
- Congressional aides said the growing antagonism between Senator Charles
E. Grassley and Representative Bill Thomas was an obstacle to their work.http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/27/politics/27MEDI.html?th
Verizon
Can we fire you now? Can we fire you now? Can we…
Verizon,
unions nearing agreement
Associated Press
8/27/03
Dispute
Over Wireless Slows Verizon
Talks
The
Washington
Post
8/27/03
Election
2004
In a Long Presidential Race, Dean Sprints
Howard Dean, a Democratic presidential contender, is campaigning as though
he is in the heat of a head-to-head national race.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/27/politics/campaigns/27DEAN.html?th
Check
this out
That’s
Our Bush! The President’s Re-Election Campaign Kicks Off With a
Shameless 9-11 Docudrama
Lights,
Camera, Exploitation
The
Village Voice
August 27 -
September
2, 2003
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0335/hoberman.php
Shuttle
Report Spurs a Debate in Congress
In the wake of a report citing a "broken safety culture" at
NASA, some lawmakers are suggesting that human spaceflight be curtailed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/28/national/nationalspecial/28POLI.html?th
America
’s
newest growth industry…gas masks.
Clean Air Act being undermined
(08/27/2003 © Pensacola
News Journal)
President
Bush doesn't want his nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency
to face questions -- in his confirmation hearing -- about the
administration's plan to gut part of the Clean Air Act. So the
administration is expected this week to have EPA's interim director sign
off on a rule...
Administration
Adopts Rule on Antipollution Exemption
The
Bush administration signed an environmental rule on Wednesday that will
allow thousands of industrial plants to make upgrades without installing
pollution controls.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/28/politics/28EPA.html?th
Politics
and Pollution
A reckless attempt to excise a key protection from the
Clear Air Act finally might force the bush administration
to
pay for its environmental record.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/28/opinion/28THU1.html?th
George
Bush’s America
Leap in Deficit Instead of Fall Is Seen for
U.S.
The federal budget deficit may soar to new heights if
Congress adopts proposals strongly supported by President
Bush, the Congressional Budget Office said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/27/politics/27BUDG.html?th
Metro
jobs heading overseas
Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
8/27/03
In
Wal-Mart's America
Washington
Post
8/27/03
The
Kids Left Behind
This president will fight for the things he cares about,
but not
for the education measures he promised in his
campaign,
or our kids.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/28/opinion/28HERB.html?th
THE
E MESSENGER WIL NOT BE SENT NEXT TEUSDAY BUT WILL RESUME ON FRIDAY ---
HAVE A GREAT LABOR DAY!
If you have
suggestions on how we may improve this online publication or have
information you would like to see posted please contact our communications
director at (850) 224 – 6926 or at rtemplin@flaflcio.org.
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Rich Templin
Communications Director
Florida
AFL-CIO |
