WORKERS POLITICAL ISSUES
In an ongoing effort to inform the membership
on worker related issues coming from the Bush administration, the regional
website will maintain and update a section on these issues monthly. This
effort is being made to keep UAW members informed of how important it
is to elect candidates who will be understanding, considerate, and friendly
to America's working class of people.
Bush Administration's Record on Labor Issues
· Appoints Postal Service Privatization Commission
· Proposes repeal of family-friendly unemployment benefits rule
· Revives cash bonuses for political appointees
· Shuts workers, unions out of most safety studies
· Allowed jobless workers to lose unemployment benefits
· Announced plans to privatize federal workforce
· Asked Fire Fighters member to resign from valor commission
because of union affiliation
· Uses Taft-Hartley to intervene in West Coast dock lockout
· Ducks hearings on Social Security privatization
· Opposes funds for firefighters
· Sides with drug companies against seniors
· Reneges on steel tariffs
· Will block funds to monitor health of World Trade Center rescue
and recovery workers and money for firefighters
· Considers troops to keep ports open in West Coast docks lockout
or strike
· Nominated corporate-friendly, anti-workers Texas judge to federal
bench
· Seeks to strip civil service and collective bargaining from
federal workers in proposed Homeland Security Department
· Opens the door to privatization of the nation's air traffic
control system
· White House refuses to say if federal workers transferred to
new Homeland Security Department will be able to maintain their collective
bargaining rights
· Pursued back settlements for poultry workers
· Ignores civil rights commission vote; appoints staunch conservative
to panel
· Proposed student loan rule change that could have cost students
$1.3 billion
· Offered toothless, voluntary ergonomic guidelines
· Proposed paying subminimum wage to "workfare" workers
· Imposed steel tariffs that give hope to steel industry, but
fall short of need
· Offered a welfare reform plan that penalizes the poor, ignores
immigrants and is underfunded
· Pushes for taxpayer dollars to private schools
· Proposes to dismantle the federal/state unemployment system
· Proposed a budget that raids the Social Security Trust Fund
to help pay for tax cuts for the rich
· Seeks to slash job training and help for workers who lose their
jobs
· Proposes eliminating 83 full-time safety and health jobs at
OSHA and cutting $9 million from safety programs
· Threatens 380,000 jobs with infrastructure funding cuts in
proposed budget
· Proposes health care and prescription drug funding far short
of real needs
· Bypassed Congress to appoint labor solicitor opposed to worker
safety measures
· Fired all members of key federal workers' dispute resolution
panel
· Revoked union representation for hundreds of workers in five
Department of Justice divisions
· Refused to accept court ruling overturning anti-worker executive
order |
