Search News
For the Media
For media inquiries, call CWA Communications at 202-434-1168 or email comms@cwa-union.org. To read about CWA Members, Leadership or Industries, visit our About page.
VP Race: The Running Mates' Records on Workers
Hours after word spread that Joseph Lieberman was Vice President Al Gore’s pick for a running mate, the Connecticut senator proudly took the podium at a gathering of his home state’s AFL-CIO members.
“It is good to be at a convention where working people are the priority, not the props,” Lieberman said, launching a lively speech that compared his and Gore’s proven commitment to workers to “lip service” from their opponents.
“They say, ‘read my lips,’ because all they do is pay lip service to working families and their concerns,” he said. “They would take us back to the failed policies of the past: large deficits, recession and economic stagnation. They devote maximum effort to blocking the minimum wage. They give us a patient bill of wrongs instead of a real patients’ bill of rights.”
“If that’s their idea of compassion for working families,” Lieberman said, “I would hate to see their idea of contempt.”
The two candidates for vice president couldn’t be more different when it comes to labor issues.
Lieberman gets high marks from the AFL-CIO for his pro-worker voting record during his 12 years as a Connecticut senator. In the last year, for instance, he’s voted to raise the minimum wage, voted in support of community wage laws and voted against a Republican attempt to slash funding for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
It’s a stark contrast to the overwhelmingly anti-worker voting record of George W. Bush’s running mate, Dick Cheney. During his 10 years in Congress representing Wyoming, he voted in favor of worker and working family issues only nine times out of 158 votes.
One recent newspaper editorial dubbed Cheney’s record “uncompassionate conservatism.” Another said, “In selecting Cheney, Bush’s message to Republican insiders is clear: It’s business as usual.”
For the past five years, Cheney has headed a Texas oil company, Halliburton, Inc. Last year, he was paid more than $9.3 million in salary and stock options, 367 times what the average worker earned, according to the AFL-CIO’s Executive Paywatch.
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.
“It is good to be at a convention where working people are the priority, not the props,” Lieberman said, launching a lively speech that compared his and Gore’s proven commitment to workers to “lip service” from their opponents.
“They say, ‘read my lips,’ because all they do is pay lip service to working families and their concerns,” he said. “They would take us back to the failed policies of the past: large deficits, recession and economic stagnation. They devote maximum effort to blocking the minimum wage. They give us a patient bill of wrongs instead of a real patients’ bill of rights.”
“If that’s their idea of compassion for working families,” Lieberman said, “I would hate to see their idea of contempt.”
The two candidates for vice president couldn’t be more different when it comes to labor issues.
Lieberman gets high marks from the AFL-CIO for his pro-worker voting record during his 12 years as a Connecticut senator. In the last year, for instance, he’s voted to raise the minimum wage, voted in support of community wage laws and voted against a Republican attempt to slash funding for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
It’s a stark contrast to the overwhelmingly anti-worker voting record of George W. Bush’s running mate, Dick Cheney. During his 10 years in Congress representing Wyoming, he voted in favor of worker and working family issues only nine times out of 158 votes.
One recent newspaper editorial dubbed Cheney’s record “uncompassionate conservatism.” Another said, “In selecting Cheney, Bush’s message to Republican insiders is clear: It’s business as usual.”
For the past five years, Cheney has headed a Texas oil company, Halliburton, Inc. Last year, he was paid more than $9.3 million in salary and stock options, 367 times what the average worker earned, according to the AFL-CIO’s Executive Paywatch.
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.