AFA-CWA Republican Shares Views on McCain

By Bill McGlashen, AFA-CWA
Bill McGlashen of AFA-CWA got to know John McCain while working for the union in Arizona. For many years, he served as an AFA local officer in Arizona and later as the executive vice president of the state's AFL-CIO.

A notable number of CWA members are Republicans. I am one of them, so this is a personal journey in many ways. But too much is at stake for working families for me to remain silent.

As an Arizona Republican, I was attracted to Senator McCain's claim to be a maverick, an independent. At first, I believed he signaled a refreshing return of my party to the party of Lincoln and Eisenhower.

But when McCain speaks about unions — in debates and stump speeches, and more importantly on the Senate floor — he portrays unions and workers in the pejorative, casting them as the cause of a problem rather than the engine that created the great American middle class.

Earlier this year, McCain helped steer a multi-billion dollar contract for advanced U.S. military fuel tanks to Airbus, a French-German consortium, where the candidate has political allies. Public outrage led Congress to hold hearings on why Boeing, an American, union company, was passed over.

If the contract stands, thousands of American workers will pay the price. Over 1,100 IAM workers in Arizona alone, McCain's own state, could lose their family-wage jobs on the Boeing assembly line and cue up in the unemployment line.

In past years, McCain has claimed publicly and bitterly that airline workers were holding passengers "hostage" during what were legal work actions under the Railway Labor Act. He tried to demolish the Act with baseball-type arbitration for aviation unions, throwing our collective bargaining rights under his Straight Talk bus. But AFA-CWA members and other airline unions stopped him cold.

If he feels this way about the Railway Labor Act, what do you think he'll do as president when the Employee Free Choice Act reaches his desk? (McCain publicly opposes it.) Who will he appoint as labor secretary or to key posts in the FAA, federal judgeships or the National Labor Relations Board?

The measure of a leader is tested during times of crisis and by his response. Days after 9/11, Senator McCain had the opportunity to speak and listen to 1,800 America West Airlines flight attendants, pilots and their families — all Arizonans — who were holding a desperate gathering in a Phoenix hotel.

At the time, legislation to aid airlines in the aftermath of 9/11 was languishing in the House and Senate and 100,000 airline workers nationwide were threatened with immediate furlough and outright termination nationwide. Without passage of the legislation, our airline was doomed.

Senator McCain was invited to meet with our members and his staff promised he'd be there. But then he got an invitation from Hollywood, to appear that night on Jay Leno's show. In that critical time, Senator McCain favored the studio lights instead of the union hall. That says it all.