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The Bush Record: Hostile To America's Workers Bush has taken a hard-line stance against organized labor and working families. From attacking unions to setting aside safety regulations that would protect the health of workers to deeply cutting job training and youth programs, Bush continually has targeted working America and union households. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Bush Consistently Sides with Business Against Workers Bush proposed eliminating overtime for 8 million workers. Bush's proposal to overhaul overtime rules could reclassify workers as managers, administrative workers or professional employees, leaving them ineligible for overtime pay. A study by the Economic Policy Institute found that overall 8 million workers would be affected by the Bush plan. Nick Clark, the assistant general counsel of the United Food and Commercial Workers in Washington, called Bush's overtime change "a massive giveaway for employers at the expense of workers."
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Bush Rescinded Federal Regulations Preventing Federal Contracts from Going to Companies that Broke Labor Laws. In response to lobbying by the business community, Bush repealed a federal regulation that prevented federal contracts from going to contractors that had violated federal labor laws. The rule had been issued by President Clinton in 2000 after an Associated Press analysis found that hundreds of contractors were eligible for federal contracts despite convictions or lawsuits for defrauding the government. A General Accounting Office study found that in one year 261 federal contractors with 5,121 health and safety law violations received $38 billion in contracts. Bush's repeal came after lobbying from the business community.
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Bush Rescinded Rule Requiring Disclosure of Union-Busting Activities by Corporations. In 2001, Bush rescinded a Clinton order that required companies to disclose materials they received to aid in stopping union organizing campaigns, such as pamphlets, videos, scripts, and strategy advice. Prior to the Clinton order, the Department of Labor routinely exempted "advice" given directly to companies from the disclosure requirement.
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Bush's Labor Department Relaxed Enforcement of Workplace Laws. After heavy lobbying from business groups, Bush's Labor Department said it would emphasize compliance assistance for companies, rather than enforcement of workplace laws. The department's shift in focus from enforcement to compliance came after lobbying campaigns from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups. The business groups said department inspectors looked too closely at small infractions, requested too much data and used different standards in different places.
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Bush Targeted Organized Labor From His First Days in Office
Less Than a Month into His Administration, Bush Issued Four Major Anti-Worker Orders. Bush signed executive orders banning project labor agreements, requiring federal contractors to post anti-union notices, eliminating the National Partnership Council and revoking job protection for service industry workers that contract with the federal government. AFL-CIO president John Sweeney said that the orders were "mean spirited and anti-worker" retribution against unions for supporting Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 elections.
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Two of Bush's Anti-Labor Executive Orders Were Found to Be Illegal. Two of the four executive orders Bush issued in February 2001 were later found to be illegal by federal judges. On 11/7/01, a federal judge ruled that Bush's order banning PLAs violated the National Labor Relations Act. Then, on 1/2/02, another federal judge found that Bush's order requiring federal contractors to post anti-union notices also violated the NLRA.
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Bush Issued an Executive Order Banning Unions in the Department of Justice. Bush issued an executive order barring unions from parts of the Department of Justice in January 2002. Bush's order affected more than 500 federal workers at various agencies within the DOJ. Bush said that union contracts could restrict workers at the Department of Justice from protecting Americans and national security, even though federal law prohibits strikes among federal workers. "We're outraged by this," said Steven Kreisberg, associate director of collective bargaining at AFSCME. "A lot of these Justice Department workers have been members of unions for 20 years and there's never been an allegation of a problem.."
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Bush Freely Uses Strike-Breaking Tactics
Bush Stepped in to Prevent Airline Strikes. In 2001, Bush used emergency boards and 60-day cooling off periods to prevent mechanics strikes at United and Northwest Airlines and offered to do the same for Delta Airlines. Bush said he intended to "take the necessary steps to prevent airline strikes from happening this year." Yet prior to Bush's first year in office, there had been only one presidential intervention in an airline labor dispute in 35 years.
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Bush Administration Threatened to Use U.S. Troops to Break Potential Port Strike on the West Coast. The Bush administration threatened to use Navy personnel to run West Coast ports if members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union went on strike in 2002. "The government has no business in these negotiations," said ILWU spokesman Steve Stallone. "We never even got a chance to begin negotiating before they started interfering. This is why negotiations are completely deadlocked."
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Bush Supported Silencing Workers' Voices In The Political Process
Bush Supported "Paycheck Protection" in Campaign Finance Reform. As the Senate was preparing to take up debate on campaign finance reform, Bush sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott outlining his "statement of principles" on the subject. Bush said that as part of his campaign finance reform, he wanted to require labor unions to require unions to get members permission before their dues money could be used for political purposes. Paycheck Protection measures hurt working families by giving them less of a voice in the political process while not restricting big business' political influence. Paycheck protection measures would subject unions to burdensome restrictions while not affecting corporate spending on political activities, even though corporations already outspend unions 11 to 1.
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Chao Silenced Workers Critical of Bush. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao prohibited the union that represents department employees from sending its newsletter through office mail. The newsletter contained an article and cartoon critical of Bush administration tax policy, and Chao said the Labor Department's mail could not be used for this purpose.
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Bush Relentlessly Targets Federal Employees
Bush Held the Annual Pay Raise for Federal Workers to Less than Half that of the Military. Bush used a loophole in federal pay law to reduce the pay raise for federal employees to 2 percent, less than half of the 4.1 percent increase Bush authorized for members of the military. AFLCIO president John Sweeney said the decision was "shameful, and makes clear that Bush is making federal employees pay for his own fiscal recklessness."
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Bush Has Proposed Privatizing More Than 25 Percent of the Federal Workforce. Bush has proposed privatizing half of all the federal workers that perform "commercial" functions, or jobs that could be done in the private sector. The proposal could privatize the jobs of 425,000 federal workers.
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Bush Fired Entire Board Charged With Mediating Labor Disputes of Federal Workers. In January 2002, Bush fired the 7 members of the Federal Service Impasses Panel, which is charged with protecting the collective bargaining rights of federal workers. The panel mediates conflicts for federal workers, who cannot legally strike, and has the authority to impose settlement terms. As a replacement FSIP chair, Bush appointed Becky Norton Dunlop, the vice president of external relations for The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think-tank. Various Heritage Foundation policy "backgrounders" support the Bush overtime rule changes that would deny overtime to 8 million workers, advocate cutting off the ability of unions to participate in the political process by imposing more restrictions and regulations on the use of member dues, oppose increases in the minimum wage, and allege that unions use violence and intimidation to keep members from leaving.
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Bush's Education Secretary Repeatedly Has Attacked Teachers Unions
Rod Paige calls National Education Association "Is a Terrorist Organization." During a White House meeting with state governors, Education Secretary Rod Paige told the audience, "The NEA is a terrorist organization."
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Paige Said Unions Led Efforts to "Distort Information" about No Child Left Behind program. The Washington Post reported: "In an interview Friday, Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige said many of the protests against the No Child Left Behind law. . . is coming from a Washington-based 'union establishment' that has mounted 'a deliberate and highly financed effort to distort information' about the law."
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Bush's Latest Budget is a Disaster For Working Americans
Bush Budget Cuts Labor Department Funding. In his 2005 budget proposal, Bush seeks a 5 percent decrease in funding-to $57.3 billion-for the Department of Labor, mostly because of a cut in projected spending on unemployment benefits.
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Bush Sought Inadequate Resources for OSHA. After the president provided a token $4 million addition to the Occupational Safety And Health Administration's budget, the agency announced that it won't increase the number of inspections it performs. More than 4.7 million workers suffered injuries on the job last year, yet the Office of Safety and Health only has the resources to afford inspection to every job site once every 63 years. With more than half of all U.S. workers at risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome, safety standards are being eroded as employers are no longer required to report repetitive stress injuries.
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Bush Slashed Worker Safety Training Grants by 64 Percent. Bush cut funding for worker safety and training grants by 64 percent, to $4 million in 2005 from $11 million in 2004. According to OSHA, the grants fund programs "to train workers and employers to recognize, avoid, and prevent safety and health hazards in their workplaces."
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Bush Flatlined Coal Mine Safety Activities, Despite Increase in Coal Mining Deaths. Bush left funding for coal mining programs at a static $115 million in the Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration, despite the fact that deaths of coal mine workers increased in 2003 to 30 from 27 in 2002.
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Bush Budget Cuts Employment Training By $151 Million. The new Bush budget combines four employment training programs (adult training dislocated worker activities, employment service state grants, and grants to states for reemployment services) into a single block grant totaling $3 billion, a reduction of $151 million from the programs' funding in FY 2004.
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Bush Budget Eliminates Dislocated Worker Assistance. Bush's 2005 budget proposal calls for the elimination of the dislocated worker assistance program, formerly a $1.45 billion program.
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Bush Terminated Retraining Program for Migrant Farmworkers. Bush cut all funding for the Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers Program, which helped provide vocational rehabilitation services to farmworkers by awarding grants to state programs.
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Youth Opportunity Grants Program Eliminated. The Bush administration's budget eliminated the Youth Opportunity Grant program, which includes the only federal program providing comprehensive employment, education and development services targeted to low-income youths, who suffer from extremely high levels of unemployment. The program got $225 million in 2003, $44 million in 2004 and is slated to be eliminated in 2005.
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Bush's Long-Term Budget Cuts Job Training. The 2005 budget essentially freezes funding for training and employment programs at $5.9 billion, although within that total, the budget cuts existing adult training and dislocated worker programs by $151 million. However, for the next four years, the budget cuts total funding below the 2005 amount, with the steepest cut in 2006. This cut in job training comes despite the reality that the economy has lost 2.9 million private-sector jobs since President Bush took office and that an increasing number of jobs are being sent overseas.
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