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Gore, Bush and Workers’ Rights
Four years ago, George W. Bush was ready to cut thousands of CWA members’ jobs from the state payroll in a scheme to privatize state social services.
He wanted to turn the delicate business of deciding who qualifies for public assistance over to private, for-profit companies. Some 17,000 jobs, mostly union, mostly CWA, would have been lost. Single mothers, the disabled, elderly, the working poor and others in need of a hand would have been at the mercy of a corporation.
Ultimately the plan failed, thanks to the grassroots efforts of working families in Texas, strong lobbying by union members and an order from President Bill Clinton.
“Gov. Bush bragged that he could get rid of the entire state social services workforce — 17,000 jobs,” CWA President Morton Bahr said. “Bush calls himself a ‘compassionate conservative,’ yet he was willing to hurt thousands of working families and cause undo suffering to tens of thousands of welfare recipients who depend on help from public workers — not from a private company driven by profit.”
That’s the Bush record, labor leaders say: Corporate interests come first.
Why is labor so vigorously backing Vice President Al Gore in the November election? Because his record has consistently put workers first.
Gore was a card-carrying member of The Newspaper Guild when he worked at The Tennessean as a young man. He had a strong pro-worker, pro-labor voting record in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, serving 16 years before becoming vice president in 1992.
“In a Gore-Lieberman administration, we’re going to be pro-union, pro-worker and pro-collective bargaining. I guarantee it,” Gore told the United Auto Workers on Aug. 11, pledging to strengthen the right to organize and “level the playing field between labor and management.”
When Sprint Long Distance ruthlessly put 235 workers, mostly women, at a Latino telemarketing office out of work in 1994 — shutting the facility down to block a vote for CWA representation — Gore offered his help. He met with the workers and CWA leaders and soon after announced at an AFL-CIO meeting that he and President Clinton were pushing for a change in regulations that determine which companies get federal contracts.
Under the proposal — which the business lobby is still vigorously fighting — companies that violate labor laws, as well as civil rights and environmental laws, wouldn’t be offered contracts.
“Vice President Gore showed true compassion for the displaced Sprint workers,” Bahr said. “And right away he went to bat for a plan that would force companies to stop and think about the consequences before behaving so shamelessly toward their employees.”
Gore refuses to cross picket lines. He canceled an interview with ABC News in late 1998, when the company locked out its NABET-CWA workers. While the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists continue their strike against advertisers, Gore and the consulting firms making his campaign ads are paying union members the higher wages they are seeking. “They want to stand with the union workers,” a Gore spokesman said.
The Bush campaign made the same pledge, but has broken it, SAG and AFTRA say. Campaign staff involved in one commercial walked right past an actors’ picket line this summer. “To cross a picket line in the middle of a political campaign — that speaks for itself,” a spokeswoman for the unions said.
When labor won its fight against welfare privatization in Texas, Gore applauded union members and pledged to uphold their work. “I can assure you that this administration will do what is best for recipients of public assistance and that this administration will look out for the interests of the workers who devote their lives to helping those recipients,” he said in a speech to AFSCME.
What was Bush’s response? He complained to the Houston Chronicle that the “AFL-CIO continues to make welfare policy for the United States.”
It was a slap at labor that CWA and other union members in Texas say is typical of Bush. He’s become famous for making promises to workers he doesn’t keep, said Texas AFL-CIO President Joe Gunn, a member of CWA Local 6222.
“His words and his deeds are a 180-degree about-face,” Gunn said. “He made us absolute commitments on certain things and then went south on us. We’ve put a Pinocchio nose on him.”
Gunn said Bush double-crossed labor early on by promising to put a labor representative on the board of a state agency that oversees employment and job training. Instead he appointed a former union member who lobbied for the job with an anti-union platform.
Bush also promised not to touch Texas teachers’ pension funds, alleging in his 1994 campaign for governor that then-Gov. Ann Richards was preparing to cut state monies to the funds. He pledged he would never do such a thing if elected. Once in office, he signed a bill cutting the state’s contribution by $400 million.
Gore has fought to raise the minimum wage; Bush has fought against it. Gore supports the proposed ergonomic standard and other measures to make worker safety a priority; Bush doesn’t. Gore has outlined a plan to shore up Social Security and ensure its future for at least 50 years; Bush wants to privatize part of the fund, risking millions of workers’ retirement monies.
Gore has also long fought to protect the rights of workers to organize, and to participate in the political process.
In 1998, for instance, he worked with labor leaders to defeat a California ballot initiative that would have restricted unions’ abilities to support political campaigns — while corporations could continue to give millions of dollars unchecked.
Gore dubbed the “paycheck protection” measure “paycheck deception” and said, “We will not let any Republican gimmicks disguised as so-called campaign reform take away the right of workers to have their voice heard in the political process.”
Bush eagerly supports so-called “paycheck protection,” but supports no campaign finance reform affecting the torrent of money from corporations.
He also boasts of his state’s so-called “right-to-work” status, designed to keep unions out. The state Department of Economic Development brags about the state’s low wages and anti-labor climate, the Tulsa World reports.
Prisons are a big deal in Texas. The state has one of the country’s largest prison systems but it pays its corrections workers miserably — ranking 46th of out the 50 states. Officer Eugene Graham makes only $26,000 a year, after 12 years on the job.
Bush “brags about the $100-a-month raise he gave us last year,” Graham, a member of the AFL-CIO’s Texas Truth Squad said. “What he doesn’t talk about is how they raised our health insurance costs. That eats it right on up. I’ve got an extra $5 a month. He gives you the money with one hand and six months later takes it out of your pocket with the other hand.”
That’s life under Bush in Texas, at least for the working class, said Gunn, the state’s AFL-CIO president. “If you’re a millionaire here, it’s great,” he said. “If you’re a worker, it’s extremely tough.”
Labor Record
Gore
Bush
This portion of this website is paid for by the CWA Committee on Political Education - Political ontributions Committee, with voluntary contributions from union members and their families, and is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
He wanted to turn the delicate business of deciding who qualifies for public assistance over to private, for-profit companies. Some 17,000 jobs, mostly union, mostly CWA, would have been lost. Single mothers, the disabled, elderly, the working poor and others in need of a hand would have been at the mercy of a corporation.
Ultimately the plan failed, thanks to the grassroots efforts of working families in Texas, strong lobbying by union members and an order from President Bill Clinton.
“Gov. Bush bragged that he could get rid of the entire state social services workforce — 17,000 jobs,” CWA President Morton Bahr said. “Bush calls himself a ‘compassionate conservative,’ yet he was willing to hurt thousands of working families and cause undo suffering to tens of thousands of welfare recipients who depend on help from public workers — not from a private company driven by profit.”
That’s the Bush record, labor leaders say: Corporate interests come first.
Why is labor so vigorously backing Vice President Al Gore in the November election? Because his record has consistently put workers first.
Gore was a card-carrying member of The Newspaper Guild when he worked at The Tennessean as a young man. He had a strong pro-worker, pro-labor voting record in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, serving 16 years before becoming vice president in 1992.
“In a Gore-Lieberman administration, we’re going to be pro-union, pro-worker and pro-collective bargaining. I guarantee it,” Gore told the United Auto Workers on Aug. 11, pledging to strengthen the right to organize and “level the playing field between labor and management.”
When Sprint Long Distance ruthlessly put 235 workers, mostly women, at a Latino telemarketing office out of work in 1994 — shutting the facility down to block a vote for CWA representation — Gore offered his help. He met with the workers and CWA leaders and soon after announced at an AFL-CIO meeting that he and President Clinton were pushing for a change in regulations that determine which companies get federal contracts.
Under the proposal — which the business lobby is still vigorously fighting — companies that violate labor laws, as well as civil rights and environmental laws, wouldn’t be offered contracts.
“Vice President Gore showed true compassion for the displaced Sprint workers,” Bahr said. “And right away he went to bat for a plan that would force companies to stop and think about the consequences before behaving so shamelessly toward their employees.”
Gore refuses to cross picket lines. He canceled an interview with ABC News in late 1998, when the company locked out its NABET-CWA workers. While the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists continue their strike against advertisers, Gore and the consulting firms making his campaign ads are paying union members the higher wages they are seeking. “They want to stand with the union workers,” a Gore spokesman said.
The Bush campaign made the same pledge, but has broken it, SAG and AFTRA say. Campaign staff involved in one commercial walked right past an actors’ picket line this summer. “To cross a picket line in the middle of a political campaign — that speaks for itself,” a spokeswoman for the unions said.
When labor won its fight against welfare privatization in Texas, Gore applauded union members and pledged to uphold their work. “I can assure you that this administration will do what is best for recipients of public assistance and that this administration will look out for the interests of the workers who devote their lives to helping those recipients,” he said in a speech to AFSCME.
What was Bush’s response? He complained to the Houston Chronicle that the “AFL-CIO continues to make welfare policy for the United States.”
It was a slap at labor that CWA and other union members in Texas say is typical of Bush. He’s become famous for making promises to workers he doesn’t keep, said Texas AFL-CIO President Joe Gunn, a member of CWA Local 6222.
“His words and his deeds are a 180-degree about-face,” Gunn said. “He made us absolute commitments on certain things and then went south on us. We’ve put a Pinocchio nose on him.”
Gunn said Bush double-crossed labor early on by promising to put a labor representative on the board of a state agency that oversees employment and job training. Instead he appointed a former union member who lobbied for the job with an anti-union platform.
Bush also promised not to touch Texas teachers’ pension funds, alleging in his 1994 campaign for governor that then-Gov. Ann Richards was preparing to cut state monies to the funds. He pledged he would never do such a thing if elected. Once in office, he signed a bill cutting the state’s contribution by $400 million.
Gore has fought to raise the minimum wage; Bush has fought against it. Gore supports the proposed ergonomic standard and other measures to make worker safety a priority; Bush doesn’t. Gore has outlined a plan to shore up Social Security and ensure its future for at least 50 years; Bush wants to privatize part of the fund, risking millions of workers’ retirement monies.
Gore has also long fought to protect the rights of workers to organize, and to participate in the political process.
In 1998, for instance, he worked with labor leaders to defeat a California ballot initiative that would have restricted unions’ abilities to support political campaigns — while corporations could continue to give millions of dollars unchecked.
Gore dubbed the “paycheck protection” measure “paycheck deception” and said, “We will not let any Republican gimmicks disguised as so-called campaign reform take away the right of workers to have their voice heard in the political process.”
Bush eagerly supports so-called “paycheck protection,” but supports no campaign finance reform affecting the torrent of money from corporations.
He also boasts of his state’s so-called “right-to-work” status, designed to keep unions out. The state Department of Economic Development brags about the state’s low wages and anti-labor climate, the Tulsa World reports.
Prisons are a big deal in Texas. The state has one of the country’s largest prison systems but it pays its corrections workers miserably — ranking 46th of out the 50 states. Officer Eugene Graham makes only $26,000 a year, after 12 years on the job.
Bush “brags about the $100-a-month raise he gave us last year,” Graham, a member of the AFL-CIO’s Texas Truth Squad said. “What he doesn’t talk about is how they raised our health insurance costs. That eats it right on up. I’ve got an extra $5 a month. He gives you the money with one hand and six months later takes it out of your pocket with the other hand.”
That’s life under Bush in Texas, at least for the working class, said Gunn, the state’s AFL-CIO president. “If you’re a millionaire here, it’s great,” he said. “If you’re a worker, it’s extremely tough.”
Labor Record
Gore
- Consistent support for increasing the minimum wage, in Congress and as vice president.
- Has fought against legislation designed to limit the ability of unions to participate in the political process.
- Long and vocal backer of workers’ right to organize.
- Protects pensions. As a senator, cosponsored the “Employee Pension Protection Act of 1989,” one of the early measures seeking to protect and strengthen employees’ pensions.
- Fights for workplace safety. Strongly backs the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s proposed ergonomics standard and has fought Republican efforts to slash OSHA’s budget and weaken federal workplace safety laws.
- No striker replacement. Backed a 1994 bill to bar companies from replacing striking workers.
Bush
- Has vetoed state minimum wage increases. Wants states to be able to opt out of the proposed $1 increased in the federal minimum wage.
- Supports legislation to restrict unions’ political contributions but opposes campaign finance reform affecting businesses and wealthy donors.
- Proud of Texas’ anti-union “right to work” status. Vetoed payroll dues deduction bill for municipal workers in Texas.
- Cut $400 million in state monies to the Texas teachers’ pension fund after pledging he wouldn’t do it during his campaign for governor.
- Tried to cut funding for Workers’ Compensation in Texas and is expected to halt or reverse the proposed ergonomics standard if elected.
- Supports privatization of many government services; tried to privatize welfare services in Texas at the cost of 17,000 jobs, many of them CWA jobs.
This portion of this website is paid for by the CWA Committee on Political Education - Political ontributions Committee, with voluntary contributions from union members and their families, and is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.