Posted on 12/07/2001 4:45:49 AM PST by Elle Bee
Big labor says the president is waging a terror war on working families.
If John Sweeney is right, Osama bin Laden isn't the only one terrorizing ordinary Americans.
It turns out that George W. Bush is also "waging a vicious war on working families." That, at least, is what the AFL-CIO chief told delegates at their convention this week in Las Vegas. Mr. Sweeney was only a warm-up for the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who the next day accused the Administration of "economic terror," declared Attorney General John Ashcroft a "threat to democracy" and called for workers to "go back to the streets."
This union jihad launched in Las Vegas against President Bush comes at a curious political moment. Begin with the four open slots Mr. Bush can fill on the five-member National Labor Relations Board, the body responsible for enforcing federal labor policy. Right now the President has put forth only two names, one of whom happens to be a Democrat and AFL-CIO favorite, Dennis Walsh. But the Walsh nomination is today in limbo, as several GOP Senators are putting "holds" on it in protest of the Democratic leadership's refusal to bring the Eugene Scalia nomination as Labor Department solicitor to the floor.
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Majority Leader Tom Daschle is making noises that he'll go ahead with Mr. Walsh's nomination anyway, but Mr. Sweeney's hyperbole is not going to help his case. In normal times, accusing an American President of waging a "vicious war" on workers is politically over the top. But it's fever-swamp-city at a moment when a commander in chief has Americans in Afghanistan risking their lives in a search for a man who really did declare war on the U.S. In Mr. Sweeney's case you might even call it schizophrenic, since in the same speech he accused Mr. Bush of warring on the American people he applauded the "excellent job" Mr. Bush is doing in the war abroad.
The gist of the Sweeney/Jackson Bush-as-al-Qaeda argument is the President's push for fast-track trade authority -- which the House gave him yesterday by a single vote -- and his alleged hostility to the right of workers to organize. Leave aside for a moment that trade creates jobs and lowers the price of goods, two things that help workers. As Mr. Bush's reluctance to shake up a Clintonite NLRB suggests, far from going to battle with organized labor, he has gone far out of his way to accommodate it.
Maybe too far. Take Mr. Walsh. A Clinton holdover, Mr. Walsh was one of those responsible for the NLRB's September decision that nonunion workers could be forced to wear union logos on their uniforms as a condition of their jobs. In a rare case where the NLRB did the right thing -- ruling that the Teamsters were trying to intimidate replacement workers by videotaping them, their cars and their license plates -- Mr. Walsh was the sole dissenter. Mr. Walsh is opposed by the AFL-CIO's archenemy and Bush supporter, the National Right to Work Committee.
The point is that time is on President Bush's side. If the Republicans keep the NLRB nominations bottled up, the Walsh nomination will expire when they go out of session. With two other recess appointments set to expire, President Bush will have the opportunity eventually to fill the board with recess appointments of people who could be far less accommodating to organized labor than those who'd get Senate confirmation.
Perhaps Mr. Sweeney is turning up the rhetoric precisely because he's afraid his own rank-and-file may conclude that they rather like Mr. Bush. About 40% of them did vote for him last year. Liberal political successes in recent elections have depended on mobilizing a large union and black-voter turnout, and fewer voters bother to turn out when they're not afraid.
Jesse and John may feel they have to shout ever louder that Mr. Bush is a war criminal at home the more he's perceived as a success abroad. But somehow we doubt America's workers are that gullible.
.CLICK on Janet Reno's MiniMe:
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'Conservative Conspiracy' Hurting US Workers, Says AFL-CIO President
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
December 04, 2001
Las Vegas (CNSNews.com) - Organized labor's top man says there is a "conservative conspiracy" against America's working men and women.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, addressing the 24th biennial convention in Las Vegas, also referred to the GOP's "sleaziness," and he called Republicans' economic policies since the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks "sickening."
Sweeney told CNSNews.com, "I think there is a conservative conspiracy going on in the Congress, especially the House of Representatives. We are bailing out the airline industry and bailing out the insurance industry, but we can't provide workers protection?"
The AFL-CIO is the largest organized labor group in the US, representing 13 million workers. The four-day conference is being held at the Paris Casino Hotel.
Enemies of the working man
Sweeney said Republicans are not helping America's labor force "because they are not concerned about workers -- they probably have never been unemployed."
He added, "They don't know the suffering and sacrifice that hundreds of thousands of workers are going through in this troubled time."
During his address to the 1,000 delegates gathered for Monday's opening-night ceremony, Sweeney decried conservatives as the enemies of the working man.
"While our sinking economy cries out for lifelines, conservatives in Congress are competing over ways to shell out tax breaks for big corporations and the wealthy," he said.
"The sleaziness of the Republicans in the House is the shame of the nation," he proclaimed. Sweeney received a nearly 30-second standing ovation from the convention crowd following that remark.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) addressed the convention live via satellite from Washington. She said the political climate in Washington has shifted in favor of a stronger government.
"There were a lot of politicians who actually built their careers on being anti-government, and too many candidates and public officials chose to beat up on employees and union members, trying to label [them] as somehow outside the American mainstream. Well, that is a lot harder to do now," she said.
"The people who were running towards the Pentagaon and WTC on September 11 -- they were union members," she explained.
Sen. Clinton added, "I almost feel sorry for politicians who make their career out of beating up on government workers and union members. I don't know who they are going to pick on now, although I guess I am still a likely candidate."
She contrasted her husband's economic policies with those of President Bush. "I came from the Clinton school of economics, where you keep building jobs and investing in people," she commented.
GOP should thank bin Laden?
Ron Richardson, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO affiliate here (the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees International Union), believes that the Republicans should be grateful to Osama bin Laden for enabling their political agenda to succeed.
"Somebody should paint a picture of a couple of these Republican leaders sitting on the knees of Santa Claus saying, 'Thank you for giving us everything we always wanted,' and Santa Claus's face would be that of bin Laden," he told CNSNews.com.
Richardson explained, "There is (sic) some disgustingly insane things going on right now with the Republicans. They are using 9-11 to get everything that they were never able to get any other way. They want to get tax breaks for their richest constituents; they want to be able to take away civil rights. I think it's been reprehensible."
He said that Bush's economic plan will "hurt working people and make the economy worse and harm the country."
Danny Thompson, executive secretary of the Nevada AFL-CIO, referred to the "Bush recession" and how it is "taking a terrible toll on Las Vegas."
Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO, compared the public officials who oppose organized labor's political agenda to the terrorists who attacked America.
"We have not been taken down by the terrorists, nor will we be taken down by those politicians who don't care about working families," she told CNSNews.com.
She added, "We are not going to sit still when the policies of Washington do not address the needs of workers."
Compulsary Unionism
The National Right to Work Committee (NRTW), a non-profit group opposed to mandatory union membership, has accused the AFL-CIO of being a lobbying arm of the Democratic Party.
NRTW's website says, "Compulsory unionism is primarily responsible for the tax-and-spend policies of the U.S. Congress. Under their federally-granted coercive powers, union officials collect some $4.5 billion annually in compulsory dues and funnel much of it into unreported campaign operations to elect and control congressional majorities dedicated to higher taxes and increased government spending."
According to a study by the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based government watchdog group, more than 94 percent of organized labors' $83 million dollars in political spending benefited Democratic candidates in the 2000 elections.
Exit polls of the 2000 presidential election showed that 40 percent of union electorate chose George Bush.
Scott Van Bergen of NRTW asked, "Why won't union officials bring their radical political stances more in line with the views of rank-and-file members they claim to represent?"
Amnesty for illegal immigrants?
Another agenda item at this week's convention involves the question of whether the AFL-CIO will affirm the decision by its Executive Council to call on the federal government to grant amnesty for all illegal immigrants and end the ban on hiring illegal immigrants.
According to AFL-CIO official Richardson, "The AFL-CIO is very clear: Amnesty is important, we need to protect the rights of immigrants. Given some of the backlash (since Sept. 11), it is even more important that we continue in that direction."
They compared the President to a MASS MURDERER??
This is totally over the line...
That countries people could not get meds for months because x42 needed some political cover....
This is totally out of line!!!!
John Sweeney & The Reverend Jackson equivicate Bush & bin Laden
They claim he is conducting a war on workers & big labor
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It's like joke telling. If you make up jokes about how the Pope is some girl chaser like Clintoon, they wouldn't be funny because there's no truth to them. The GOP attacked Gore successfully last year as being a liar and the people believed the GOP because Gore even lied during the debates. The only people that fall for that James Byrd crap are Black people. Independent voters tilt elections. They think Bush is a good man doing a good job. Sweeney or the irREleVant Jesse Jackson don't speak for those voters. Don't worry about them.
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For a man who has made a living of bilking the government, his own people and Wall Street, and everyone knows it, I can't see anyone taking this bilge seriously.
There is no right wing media, more of Jackson's disinformation. He is more frightened for himself with the new rules from an honest DOJ than he is for anyone else. Just think what the FBI and IRS could find out about this flim-flam, double dealing, lying, adulterous cheat! Be afraid, be afraid Jackson. America's own terrorist...deal him out AFL-CIO, he is anything but your friend!
Poorest country = No donations = who cares,
Poor country + aspirin factory = not unionized
no more foreign factory = more US jobs for union workers
Why would these two complain?
Hey...you just described my Liberal Daughter-in-law to a T.
Ms. clinton helped the unions try to defeat Right to Work here and I would suspect she is behind this. Want to talk about evil -- look in her face and that is the face of evil. Words fail me right now about how much I truly dislike the unions and their leaders!
This pisses me off.
Anyone have a brother in law in the tar business? I have a few feather pillows I'll sacrifice for the cause. Then we'll only need a couple of good sturdy wooden rails.
Now forming: FreepAlert
you would never hear this even reported in the lamestream media
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The LIBERALS are scrapping the bottom of the barrel. They're desperate and it shows.
They have to block Bush's nominees and sling mud while we're at war to stay in the news and keep their Left-wing, wack-job supporters fed.
They can't raise money so they ask for, and are denied, special dispensation to circumvent political campaign contribution restrictions.
They're turning on a spit over the fires of division and hate they've lovingly tended for years. Put a fork in them. I think they're done.
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