In My Opinion: Bush Scorecard So Far: Retribution 5, Civility 0

After the nomination of right-wing ideologue and union-hater Linda Chavez fizzled, the selection of Elaine Chao as Labor Secretary certainly looked more promising.

In fact, Secretary Chao made the trip to Los Angeles last month to meet with the AFL-CIO Executive Council where she voiced her willingness to work with union leaders.

But her gesture soon was clouded by other signals from the Bush administration. Just 48 hours after Chao’s visit, the White House very pointedly announced that Bush would issue four executive orders attacking unions and workers’ rights.

The four measures were a grab bag of unrelated issues. Clearly, administration officials looked around for a package of actions the president could take on his own, without congressional consent, that would infuriate organized labor and bring smiles to the extreme right and the big corporate lobbies.

The fact that some of these orders will cause wasteful government spending and contribute to labor-management discord within federal agencies seems not to concern the administration. It’s a case of politics over good policy.
Here’s a rundown on the president’s orders:

• Project Labor Agreements: This executive order prohibits agencies from requiring bidders on federal construction projects to enter into agreements with a labor organization for the work, in effect banning the use of project labor agreements.
  
  The federal government and states have effectively used such labor agreements for decades because they promote efficiency and cost savings. The agreements typically set terms of employment on complex projects, bringing together workers from many crafts under a pre-agreed set of work rules, procedures for settling disputes in an orderly fashion, and a prohibition of strikes and lockouts for the duration of the project. They allow all contractors — both union and non-union — to bid on an equal footing.
  
  Bush’s order undermines this sensible government procurement policy and will lead to project delays, conflicts and ultimately higher federal costs.
   
• Federal Labor-Management Partnership: This executive order rescinds a 1993 order by President Clinton that required federal agencies to confer with their employees’ representatives over such topics as staffing levels and work techniques and established the National Partnership Council to improve labor-management relations throughout the federal government.
  
  The Bush action abolishes labor-management systems that have well served the government and hundreds of thousands of federal workers, including the 700 CWA members at the Government Printing Office. The flexible approach to resolving workplace issues represented by these programs reflects a steady development of cooperative labor relations going back to the Nixon administration. Now President Bush has unceremoniously ended these initiatives, effectively delivering a slap in the face to his own workers.
   
• Displacement of Qualified Workers: Bush also rescinded a 1994 Clinton executive order that required building service contractors in federal buildings that have taken over work from another contractor to offer continued employment in the same jobs to qualified workers of the displaced contractor.
  
  The Bush action is a powerful blow to job security at federal work sites. These workers are usually low-paid, and even brief periods of joblessness can be catastrophic for their families. There is simply no justification for this meanspirited attack on worker protections.
   
• Union Fees and Dues: This executive order requires government contractors to post notices stating that employees can’t be required to become union members in order to retain their jobs, and that those who do not join the union may object to paying the portion of agency fees that are not related to collective bargaining.
  
  This is identical to the order issued by the first President Bush during his 1992 reelection campaign when he was trying to shore up right-wing support and elicit corporate contributions. President Clinton rescinded the order on the basis that it was merely an anti-union gesture.

  Bush’s order, of course, makes no mention of posting notices informing workers about their rights to organize unions, or their rights to other federal protections.

And now, in the first labor issue to hit the congressional spotlight, the Bush administration and the Republican leaders are preparing to rescind the federal ergonomic standard issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration last year to combat the crippling epidemic of carpal tunnel syndrome and other physical disorders caused by improper workplace design (see REPLACE for how to make your voice heard on this vital issue).

President Bush came to office speaking of “changing the tone” in Washington, and pursuing an atmosphere of “civility” and bipartisanship. From the standpoint of working families, we’ve seen not civility but a sharp stick in the eye. As for his vaunted “compassionate” conservatism, Bush’s first actions have been to attack workers’ job security and safety and health protections, hardly compassionate.

Most organized workers voted for Bush’s opponent, and so far the scorecard on labor issues shows that his agenda, rhetoric aside, is one of political retribution.

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