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L-P Conference: Unions Can Turn the Tide in 2004
With the economy "in the ditch" - as Bill Clinton put it - unions have ample evidence to sway the country away from the devastating Bush economic policies and restore basic principles of fairness, compassion and common sense to government in the next election.
That was the message from Clinton and a full slate of other speakers at CWA's Legislative-Political Conference this week, drawing more than 500 CWA local leaders to Washington, D.C.
Receiving thunderous ovations and a few bursts of "four more years," the former president closed the conference Wednesday with a morning speech that reproached the Bush tax cut and the sea change in White House attitudes toward social programs, labor policy, environmental protections and international diplomacy.
"What a difference two years and one president makes," CWA President Morton Bahr said in introducing Clinton and extolling his administration's worker-friendly agenda, including Clinton and Vice President Al Gore's refusal to meet with telecom industry CEOs without union leaders also present. "I can sum it up by saying, 'Mr. President, do we miss you,'" he said.
The conference opened Sunday with a speech by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, the first woman to serve in the top leadership of either the House or Senate.
"We must help the American people understand the reality behind President Bush's economic rhetoric: how he inherited the strongest economy in the nation's history and squandered it into a weak economy, how he turned the largest budget surplus in a generation into the largest deficit in history, how he was handed a low unemployment rate and now more than 2.5 million private-sector jobs have been lost since he took office, the worst record of any president in a half century" Pelosi said.
Speakers universally took aim at Bush's reckless tax cut plan benefiting wealthy Americans while giving back virtually nothing to working families and cutting funds for health care and other programs vital to seniors, the poor, children and others in need.
"Bush will claim that it was 9/11 that did it to the economy," said Rep David Obey of Wisconsin. "But the Congressional Budget Office - and that's controlled by Republicans - has made it clear that the largest share of the erosion in the economy is due to economic policies, not 9/11."
The economy and tax cut were key issues that conference participants raised with members of Congress and their staffs while lobbying on Capitol Hill. Other top issues including saving and strengthening the Family and Medical Leave Act, extending jobless benefits, providing affordable health care, staving off attempts to end overtime after 40 hours a week, welfare reform that genuinely lifts people from poverty, protecting civil liberties through laws and balanced federal courts, and safeguarding CWA and other health care professionals who may suffer adverse reactions to smallpox vaccinations.
Noting some of those issues and others, speakers thanked CWA and the labor movement for fighting not only for union members but for all working families, championing justice, fairness and civil rights in America and throughout the world. "Unions are the one place where you can look around and see every ethnic group on the face of the earth working together," said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). "Not only do you affect people today, you are affecting generations yet unborn."
If CWA and the rest of the labor movement is as organized and fights as hard as it has in past elections, speakers said they're optimistic about the chances for real change in the 2004 election, especially given how many other groups are increasingly disenchanted with Bush and Republican leadership policies.
"Reach out when you can to independents and moderates and build a coalition that can carry your state," said Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who knows firsthand how powerful a union and grassroots coalition can be: She was reelected to her seat last fall in a run-off election in spite of millions spent by Republicans and a parade of visits by Bush and his family to support her opponent.
CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling said the challenge of 2004 will be tough, as always, but has never been more important.
"With the choice between an America that invests in working families and one that lines the pockets of the wealthy and powerful, we must mobilize our members more than ever," she said. "More is riding on this than ever before. The task before us is to continuously expose what those who dream of a world without unions are trying to do, to stop their assault on working families and to articulate our vision for the future."
Several speakers evoked the memory of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, who wound up his passionate, energetic speech at last year's conference shouting, "I am a proud labor senator."
Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) said he's also proud to call himself a "labor senator" and says Congress needs many more members who will unabashedly take a stand for workers to oppose a corporate agenda that presently includes such legislation as ending the 40-hour workweek. "We need more Paul Wellstones," he said. "We need to have the votes to push back, to say 'No.'"
CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen recalled Wellstone's exuberance and vision. "Paul was a political science professor and when asked, 'what is politics?' he said, 'Politics is what we create by what we do, what we hope for and what we dare to imagine.'
"As we work this week in Washington for political and economic justice in these difficult days, let's recall Paul's words and recommit ourselves to define our politics and CWA as not only what we do today, but what we hope for and what we dare to imagine," Cohen said.
Other conference speakers were Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D-Texas), Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Rep. Jack Quinn (R-N.Y), Rep Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.), Rep Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.), Association of Flight Attendants President Pat Friend, Bernie Horn of the Council for Policy Alternatives and pollster Celinda Lake.
That was the message from Clinton and a full slate of other speakers at CWA's Legislative-Political Conference this week, drawing more than 500 CWA local leaders to Washington, D.C.
Receiving thunderous ovations and a few bursts of "four more years," the former president closed the conference Wednesday with a morning speech that reproached the Bush tax cut and the sea change in White House attitudes toward social programs, labor policy, environmental protections and international diplomacy.
"What a difference two years and one president makes," CWA President Morton Bahr said in introducing Clinton and extolling his administration's worker-friendly agenda, including Clinton and Vice President Al Gore's refusal to meet with telecom industry CEOs without union leaders also present. "I can sum it up by saying, 'Mr. President, do we miss you,'" he said.
The conference opened Sunday with a speech by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, the first woman to serve in the top leadership of either the House or Senate.
"We must help the American people understand the reality behind President Bush's economic rhetoric: how he inherited the strongest economy in the nation's history and squandered it into a weak economy, how he turned the largest budget surplus in a generation into the largest deficit in history, how he was handed a low unemployment rate and now more than 2.5 million private-sector jobs have been lost since he took office, the worst record of any president in a half century" Pelosi said.
Speakers universally took aim at Bush's reckless tax cut plan benefiting wealthy Americans while giving back virtually nothing to working families and cutting funds for health care and other programs vital to seniors, the poor, children and others in need.
"Bush will claim that it was 9/11 that did it to the economy," said Rep David Obey of Wisconsin. "But the Congressional Budget Office - and that's controlled by Republicans - has made it clear that the largest share of the erosion in the economy is due to economic policies, not 9/11."
The economy and tax cut were key issues that conference participants raised with members of Congress and their staffs while lobbying on Capitol Hill. Other top issues including saving and strengthening the Family and Medical Leave Act, extending jobless benefits, providing affordable health care, staving off attempts to end overtime after 40 hours a week, welfare reform that genuinely lifts people from poverty, protecting civil liberties through laws and balanced federal courts, and safeguarding CWA and other health care professionals who may suffer adverse reactions to smallpox vaccinations.
Noting some of those issues and others, speakers thanked CWA and the labor movement for fighting not only for union members but for all working families, championing justice, fairness and civil rights in America and throughout the world. "Unions are the one place where you can look around and see every ethnic group on the face of the earth working together," said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). "Not only do you affect people today, you are affecting generations yet unborn."
If CWA and the rest of the labor movement is as organized and fights as hard as it has in past elections, speakers said they're optimistic about the chances for real change in the 2004 election, especially given how many other groups are increasingly disenchanted with Bush and Republican leadership policies.
"Reach out when you can to independents and moderates and build a coalition that can carry your state," said Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who knows firsthand how powerful a union and grassroots coalition can be: She was reelected to her seat last fall in a run-off election in spite of millions spent by Republicans and a parade of visits by Bush and his family to support her opponent.
CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling said the challenge of 2004 will be tough, as always, but has never been more important.
"With the choice between an America that invests in working families and one that lines the pockets of the wealthy and powerful, we must mobilize our members more than ever," she said. "More is riding on this than ever before. The task before us is to continuously expose what those who dream of a world without unions are trying to do, to stop their assault on working families and to articulate our vision for the future."
Several speakers evoked the memory of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, who wound up his passionate, energetic speech at last year's conference shouting, "I am a proud labor senator."
Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) said he's also proud to call himself a "labor senator" and says Congress needs many more members who will unabashedly take a stand for workers to oppose a corporate agenda that presently includes such legislation as ending the 40-hour workweek. "We need more Paul Wellstones," he said. "We need to have the votes to push back, to say 'No.'"
CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen recalled Wellstone's exuberance and vision. "Paul was a political science professor and when asked, 'what is politics?' he said, 'Politics is what we create by what we do, what we hope for and what we dare to imagine.'
"As we work this week in Washington for political and economic justice in these difficult days, let's recall Paul's words and recommit ourselves to define our politics and CWA as not only what we do today, but what we hope for and what we dare to imagine," Cohen said.
Other conference speakers were Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D-Texas), Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Rep. Jack Quinn (R-N.Y), Rep Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.), Rep Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.), Association of Flight Attendants President Pat Friend, Bernie Horn of the Council for Policy Alternatives and pollster Celinda Lake.