Time for workers to unite and beat Bush.
By: Hank Kalet
Marie Cocco in today’s Newsday reminds us what the presidential election may mean for America’s workers.
In a column on the Gephardt campaign, she offers this:
"We used to teach that America was lifted to greatness on the shoulders of men like these. They are the people who built the interstates, who make the cars that speed across them, who mold the tires. They are the people who drive the big rigs that deliver what the country makes and grows to freight yards and ports.
"And for more than two decades, they have said their decline is our decline. That the great American middle is shrinking under unfair competition from exploited workers abroad. That no great country can remain powerful without the power of manufacturing jobs – which for 41 consecutive months now have disappeared.
"They have tried to be heard saying change may be inevitable, but that does not automatically make it good. And it does not mean the country should ignore those hurt by it. But by and large, the country has.
"Americans have elected Republican presidents organized labor mostly opposed – the current president even uses a government Web site to tell employers how to avoid paying their workers overtime. And they chose Democrat Bill Clinton, who signed the North American Free Trade Agreement. There are those who say he signed away their good jobs, their good benefits, their great American chance at the good life."
But, as she points out, the current resident of the White House makes almost all others look like the reincarnation of Samuel Gompers, which is why labor will get behind whichever Democrat win the nomination.
"The alternative to go down without a fight against an incumbent who has used his power to strip even federal clerical workers of their union protection is not in the blood."
Nor should it be. Improving the lot of workers should be a priority for whoever ends up in the White House. We know it’s not a priority of George W. Bush.