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In My Opinion: Union Political Action Pays Off
In just the past month, we've seen several examples of how political action pays off for our members in concrete ways.
Our successful strategy at Verizon East - where we won a major victory for hometown jobs and health security for 60,000 families - was based on forcing the company to keep paying a potential "scabforce" some $7.5 million a day while we also built mounting pressure through political and community support.
Key to the effort, U.S. congressional officials, state lawmakers and city mayors and council members who we've supported over the years appeared at CWA and IBEW rallies to stand alongside our Verizon members.
And I can tell you that Verizon's reaction was immediate when we ran newspaper ads carrying an open letter signed by every single Democratic U.S. senator from New England to West Virginia calling on the company to drop its takeback demands and bargain fairly. Top company executives were on the phone right away to the senators' offices (we quickly heard) trying to mollify the lawmakers.
Support like this - our longtime friend Ted Kennedy took the lead in drafting the letter and circulating it to his colleagues - only comes as a result of CWA's grassroots work and financial backing to help elect worker-friendly congressional leaders.
During the Clinton-Gore years, there were many times when our administration allies stepped in to save CWA jobs and protect union families from attacks on pensions, job safety and workers' rights.
It's a more hostile world for workers today under Bush-Cheney and a Labor Department that acts more like a junior Commerce Department. Even so, our political and legislative work has helped maintain a bulwark in the Senate against the worst assaults from the radical, anti-union right.
Recently, the Labor Department's attempt to rewrite the Fair Labor Standards Act and take overtime pay away from over 8 million workers was stymied by a 54-45 Senate vote on an amendment to a critical budget package (see Senators Thrwart Attack on Overtime, but Battle Not Over). All but one Senate Democrat held the line for workers, and six courageous Republicans broke ranks with the White House.
The same week, the Senate stood up to the administration in a 55-40 vote to wipe out the FCC's new rules to allow TV and newspaper conglomerates to gobble up even more local media outlets - an issue of "the public interest over the big corporate interests," in the words of Senator Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.).
In both cases, the White House has threatened to use the veto to impose its will, although in doing so the administration clearly would be going against public sentiment.
The most dramatic example of the impact of politics on working families is the current economic debacle, characterized by an exploding deficit fueled by the Bush tax cuts for the rich, and the resulting "jobless recovery." More accurately, it is a job-loss recovery, considering that 2.7 million jobs have disappeared since the administration took over in 2001.
And the job losses continue, proving that tax cuts favoring the wealthy investment class are not an effective economic stimulant. Figures just reported for August by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that another 134,000 workers were fired in mass layoffs.
With the president's request for another $87 billion for Iraq, on top of the $79 billion Congress approved earlier this year, the deficit for 2004 will top $535 billion. In the words of Senator Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), we will be "spending the $164 billion Social Security surplus in the streets of Baghdad."
Unless the top-rate tax cuts are rolled back, the budget surplus that President Bush inherited will have turned into a $10 trillion deficit by 2013 - a grim legacy of debt burden for a generation of workers who are now in kindergarten. Meanwhile, spending for education and health care programs - even homeland security - is being curtailed and the growing budget crisis in the states is causing more layoffs as well as soaring state, local and property taxes.
This is the political landscape as we look toward the 2004 elections, just a little over a year from now. We have a vital stake in election battles for the White House, Congress and governorships and state houses. Above all, we must change the direction of the Bush administration's failed economic policies and elect a Congress that will look out for middle-class working families, not just the wealthy and corporate elites.
You can play an important role in this critical effort by contributing to CWA-COPE, our political action program. You can learn more by visiting www.cwa-cope.org.
To become a participant, contact your local steward or other union officer.
Our successful strategy at Verizon East - where we won a major victory for hometown jobs and health security for 60,000 families - was based on forcing the company to keep paying a potential "scabforce" some $7.5 million a day while we also built mounting pressure through political and community support.
Key to the effort, U.S. congressional officials, state lawmakers and city mayors and council members who we've supported over the years appeared at CWA and IBEW rallies to stand alongside our Verizon members.
And I can tell you that Verizon's reaction was immediate when we ran newspaper ads carrying an open letter signed by every single Democratic U.S. senator from New England to West Virginia calling on the company to drop its takeback demands and bargain fairly. Top company executives were on the phone right away to the senators' offices (we quickly heard) trying to mollify the lawmakers.
Support like this - our longtime friend Ted Kennedy took the lead in drafting the letter and circulating it to his colleagues - only comes as a result of CWA's grassroots work and financial backing to help elect worker-friendly congressional leaders.
During the Clinton-Gore years, there were many times when our administration allies stepped in to save CWA jobs and protect union families from attacks on pensions, job safety and workers' rights.
It's a more hostile world for workers today under Bush-Cheney and a Labor Department that acts more like a junior Commerce Department. Even so, our political and legislative work has helped maintain a bulwark in the Senate against the worst assaults from the radical, anti-union right.
Recently, the Labor Department's attempt to rewrite the Fair Labor Standards Act and take overtime pay away from over 8 million workers was stymied by a 54-45 Senate vote on an amendment to a critical budget package (see Senators Thrwart Attack on Overtime, but Battle Not Over). All but one Senate Democrat held the line for workers, and six courageous Republicans broke ranks with the White House.
The same week, the Senate stood up to the administration in a 55-40 vote to wipe out the FCC's new rules to allow TV and newspaper conglomerates to gobble up even more local media outlets - an issue of "the public interest over the big corporate interests," in the words of Senator Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.).
In both cases, the White House has threatened to use the veto to impose its will, although in doing so the administration clearly would be going against public sentiment.
The most dramatic example of the impact of politics on working families is the current economic debacle, characterized by an exploding deficit fueled by the Bush tax cuts for the rich, and the resulting "jobless recovery." More accurately, it is a job-loss recovery, considering that 2.7 million jobs have disappeared since the administration took over in 2001.
And the job losses continue, proving that tax cuts favoring the wealthy investment class are not an effective economic stimulant. Figures just reported for August by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that another 134,000 workers were fired in mass layoffs.
With the president's request for another $87 billion for Iraq, on top of the $79 billion Congress approved earlier this year, the deficit for 2004 will top $535 billion. In the words of Senator Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), we will be "spending the $164 billion Social Security surplus in the streets of Baghdad."
Unless the top-rate tax cuts are rolled back, the budget surplus that President Bush inherited will have turned into a $10 trillion deficit by 2013 - a grim legacy of debt burden for a generation of workers who are now in kindergarten. Meanwhile, spending for education and health care programs - even homeland security - is being curtailed and the growing budget crisis in the states is causing more layoffs as well as soaring state, local and property taxes.
This is the political landscape as we look toward the 2004 elections, just a little over a year from now. We have a vital stake in election battles for the White House, Congress and governorships and state houses. Above all, we must change the direction of the Bush administration's failed economic policies and elect a Congress that will look out for middle-class working families, not just the wealthy and corporate elites.
You can play an important role in this critical effort by contributing to CWA-COPE, our political action program. You can learn more by visiting www.cwa-cope.org.
To become a participant, contact your local steward or other union officer.