Legislative-Political Conference: Labor Can Turn the Tide in 2004: 'Make Sure the American People Kn

Rising unemployment. Millions of children, and adults, with no health insurance. The skyrocketing federal deficit. The future of Medicare and Social Security at risk. States frantically cutting vital programs to balance the books. A torrent of attacks on workers' and unions' hard-won rights and benefits.

The CWA's 2003 Legislative-Political Conference didn't pull any punches: Times are tough for families, for workers and for unions, and it's critical that Democrats, moderate Republicans and everyone affected by the economy's downturn pull together to restore basic principles of fairness, compassion and common sense to government.

"What a difference two years and one president make," CWA President Morton Bahr said, introducing the conference's most anticipated speaker, former President William Jefferson Clinton.
"We have moved from growing budget surpluses to deficits that will shackle generations to come. We have gone from an administration that created millions of new jobs to one that is sure to rival Herbert Hoover's record of being the only president to leave office with fewer jobs than when he came into office," Bahr said. "I can sum it up by saying, 'Mr. President, do we miss you!'"

But the good news, put forth by Clinton and a full slate of lawmakers, is that the labor movement not only has the proven grassroots power of union families to hit the streets, knock on doors and rally for change, it's got the evidence to drive its point home.

"Let me tell you something," Clinton said. "You didn't spend the surplus. You didn't loot the corporations. You didn't rip off the shareholders or the pensions of employees. You didn't lead the assault on the environment. You didn't turn over health care policy to the HMOs. The unions didn't do that. You need to fight this. You don't need to call them names, like they called us. But you do need to make sure the American people know what the truth is, what the choices are."

It's the Economy
The nearly 500 CWA local leaders and retirees who attended the conference March 9-12 in Washington, D.C., got lots of exercise responding to speakers from Capitol Hill with one standing ovation after another - with especially thunderous applause for the former president.

"We have gone from a $5.6 billion projected surplus over the next 10 years, which would have taken us out of debt entirely by 2012, to a $1.8 trillion projected deficit," Clinton said. "We passed this big old tax cut in 2001, 40 percent of which went to people in the top 1 percent, before we knew what our income, expenses, our emergencies were. All of you would be broke if you ran your household budget that way. And now they want to do it again.

"You know, when you're in politics, the first rule is: When you get yourself into a hole, quit digging," Clinton said to laughter and loud applause. "They're down there in the hole screaming, 'Give me a bigger shovel.'"

The economy and tax cut were key issues that conference participants raised with members of Congress and their staffs while lobbying on Capitol Hill each afternoon. Other top issues including saving and strengthening the Family and Medical Leave Act, extending jobless benefits, affordable health care, staving off attempts to end overtime pay 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.

The conference opened 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.

Pelosi and other speakers pledged unwavering support for the troops risking their lives overseas, including thousands of union members who are reservists or National Guard members. But they said patriotism doesn't mean staying silent on domestic issues that are hurting working families.

"There is a renewed concern about the need to protect our way of life and the rights we cherish," Pelosi said. "Just as we defend our freedom abroad, we must defend these freedoms at home. Working together, we can build the future we dare to imagine - a safe and prosperous America, good jobs with good wages, a strong, vibrant economy, a meaningful prescription drug benefit and quality education for American children."

Speakers universally took aim at the Bush administration's tax cuts, emphasizing the enormous benefits to wealthy Americans while giving back virtually nothing to working families. Especially devastating, they said, is how the tax cuts are forcing local, state and federal agencies to slash funds for health care and other programs vital to seniors, the poor and children.

"Bush will claim that it's 9/11 that did it to the economy," said Rep David Obey (D-Wis.) "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."

Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D-Texas), Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said the president "is destroying the few programs out there that protect the needs of our most vulnerable citizens. 'Leave No Child Behind?' In 2003, he's leaving them behind to the tune of $7 billion. In 2004, it will be $9 billion. He's going after programs for drop-outs, after-school programs, college aid - key programs."

Freshman Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.), who now holds the seat that last belonged to his mother, also expressed deep concern about education, particularly class size. "The key to a strong economy is to invest in our own neighborhoods and communities and to create jobs in our own backyards," he said.

The only member of Congress who was ever a welfare mother, Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), said the issues that CWA members came to Capitol Hill to lobby for "are more important than ever to children and working Americans."

"As we are faced with a failing economy and the possibility of war, we must remember that our first priority is American families, and one way to help families is to bridge the divide between work and caring for their kids. I can say for a certainty that no member of Congress understands this issue better than I," said Woolsey, who rebuilt her and her children's lives with welfare aid after her husband became mentally ill.

Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said the corporate agenda now dominating politics is a serious threat to workers' rights and safety, and fairness for working families, the poor and retirees. As evidence, he spoke of taking seniors to Canada to buy cheap prescription drugs, of visiting a GE plant in Mexico - three miles from the U.S. border - where workers make less than $1 an hour and live in dirt-floor shacks, and of touring other American-owned factories outside the United States whose workers are dying of cancer because companies don't have to comply with any bona fide environmental or safety regulations.

Proud of Labor
"Unions are the one institution 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."

Cummings and other speakers had high praise for labor's long tradition of fighting on the front lines for workers, justice and civil rights - always battling for the underdog, whether or not union members were directly affected.

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 said 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'd reply, '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.

Although anti-worker politicians generally have bigger coffers than their opponents, unions have the ability to organize vast numbers of willing, energetic members and their families. Last fall, that made a difference for many new, worker-friendly members of Congress, including Meek and three others who spoke on a panel about their races.

"We decided early on that we were going to have a race with an edge to it," said Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.). "We were going to go after Bush and his policies and let the chips fall," he said of his race. "We had an overwhelming victory. Rather than step back from the fight, we need to step up to the fight, and by 2004 we can begin to have a Congress that truly reflects the values of working families."

The same campaign philosophy - and lots of CWA legwork - helped Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) win a tough race last fall. "We did not shy away from the issues. We were not wishy-washy," he said. "But we didn't go negative. We kept pounding away day after day on the issues."

Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.), whose parents met on a CWA picket line in 1947 during the first nationwide telephone strike, said unions played a huge grassroots role in electing him to his Long Island district last fall. "That kind of effort is required to elect Democrats. We cannot win the fundraising war, so we have to go house by house, block by block."

Sticking Together
Nowhere was the power of unions and coalition building more apparent than in Louisiana, where Sen. Mary Laundrieu faced the toughest of all election battles. Her race turned into a run-off in December, and her opponents' campaign brought in millions of dollars and much of the Bush family and many other Republican heavyweights to the state.

"Let's be smart about our politics," Landrieu said. "Reach out where you can to independents and moderates and build a coalition that can carry your state."

A Republican long supported by labor delivered a similar message. Rep. Jack Quinn (R-N.Y.) has put together a labor roundtable in Buffalo that meets quarterly to talk about the concerns of workers in his district and is working with other moderate Republicans in Congress to try to advance a more worker-friendly agenda within the party.

"We've got to be able to build a relationship so that we've got the bodies at the end of the day to stop some of these bad things from happening," Quinn said.

Pat Friend, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, told of her union's struggles in the most difficult time in history for airlines and their employees. She urged unions to continue to band together, for the good of all members and their families.

"As we continue our struggle, we must always work together as partners," Friend said. "It is the only way we will be able to counter the growing power, money and influence that is concentrated in the hands of corporate America, under the careful stewardship of Bush's White House."

CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling said the fight for real change as the 2004 elections approach 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. Together, we have the opportunity to truly make a difference."