Labor WIll Be Looking For Quick Action From New Congress

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/4618

Labor WIll Be Looking For Quick Action From New Congress

By Doug Cunningham

With Democrats officially in control now of both the U.S. House and the Senate working families and organized labor will no longer be talking to a stone wall when it comes to a range of legislation. Bill Samuel, Legislative Director for the AFL-CIO, says when the new, more working family friendly Congress gets to work in January here a few things they will move on right away.

: “In the first hundred hours in January they’re going to pass an increase in the minimum wage, the first one in ten years. They’re going to tackle the Medicare prescription drug program to introduce competition to bring down prices. We will definitely be pushing legislation to curb the abuse of our bankruptcy laws, which have allowed a number of companies to walk away from their pension and health care obligation to workers while reorganizing and protecting CEO pay.”

Samuel says labor will also be pushing Congress to get U.S. troops out of Iraq.

: "Democrats are going to put enormous pressure, backed by labor, on the president to get out of Iraq quickly. I don't know how successful right off the bat that will be, but clearly the voters have spoken. There's some indication the president heard that. The resignation of Donald Rumsfeld certainly suggests that. But I think there will be a good debate about getting out."


AUDIO story here: http://www.laborradio.org/files/lo/winsheadlines.ram