Fwd: Business vows to counter labor's electoral strength

[Leo Casey]

> Subject: Business vows to counter labor's electoral
> strength
> Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2000 21:40:04 -0800
> Reply-to: asdnet at igc.topica.com
> 
> Business, labor see successes in U.S. election 
>  
>  
> Updated 6:45 PM ET November 8, 2000 
> By Peter Szekely
> 
> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Business groups said
> Tuesday's national election
> results showed they could stifle labor's recent
> political success using its
> own tactics, but the labor movement said the battles
> were fought on its
> ideological turf.
> 
> In their respective Wednesday-morning analyses of
> the election cliffhanger
> that has yet to yield a new president and left
> Congress as closely divided
> as ever, labor and business groups hailed the
> results of their
> people-oriented campaign tactics, saying they would
> do more of the same
> next time.
> 
> "Our tactics proved very successful," Bernadette
> Budde, senior vice
> president of the Business and Industry Political
> Action Committee (BIPAC),
> told a news conference.
> 
> "We could toe-to-toe with organized labor and, while
> not every race was won
> by the business community, the proof was there that
> labor didn't roll us
> over as it might have in previous elections," said
> Budde.
> 
> Business groups, borrowing a few moves that unions
> used successfully in the
> 1998 congressional elections, emphasized the "ground
> war" along with their
> television advertising campaigns. They launched a
> coordinated effort aimed
> at urging companies to "educate" their workers about
> business issues in the
> election.
> 
> MESSAGE DELIVERED
> 
> "We do not intend anymore to cede the ground war to
> organized labor," said
> Michael Baroody, senior Vice President of the
> National Association of
> Manufacturers (NAM).
> 
> The AFL-CIO was equally upbeat about the way the
> labor movement delivered
> its message, reaching union members in the
> workplace, going door-to-door
> and working the phones up to the last minute Tuesday
> in its biggest
> political effort ever.
> 
> "It's clear that union members exercised the
> unmatched power we hold as a
> united political force in this nation," said John
> Sweeney, president of the
> 66-union federation. "We're building a solidarity
> and culture of
> mobilization that will last, and we're going to
> build it even more."
> 
> Union officials were buoyed by a post-election
> survey that showed union
> households made up a record 26 percent of Tuesday's
> voters, up from 23
> percent in 1996 and 1998, and that those voters
> backed Democrat Al Gore for
> president over Republican George W. Bush by a 63-32
> percent margin.
> 
> The outcome of the presidential race hung in limbo
> Wednesday, pending the
> outcome of a recount in Florida, while Republican
> majorities in Congress
> tightened.
> 
> Democrats added one or two of the seven seats they
> need to win control of
> the House and picked up three seats in the
> 100-member Senate, where they
> currently lag by 54-46.
> 
> But AFL-CIO political director Steve Rosenthal said
> it was not the
> new-found tactics of business that left labor with
> more modest
> congressional gains than in 1998. Rather, he said it
> was the confusion of
> voters as many business-backed Republicans
> highlighted their own variations
> of issues like prescription drug coverage for senior
> citizens and Social
> Security fixes.
> 
> POST-ELECTION SURVEY
> 
> "They ran on our agenda, so I think that had more to
> do with it than
> anything else," said Rosenthal.
> 
> A labor-funded post-election survey of union voters
> found that 70 percent
> voted for Democratic House members and 29 percent
> voted for Republicans. It
> also found that most of those who voted for Gore
> were motivated by issues,
> while most Bush supporters were motivated by
> character, leading labor
> officials to conclude that rank-and-filers agreed
> with their message.
> 
> Business and labor groups said the closely divided
> Congress would not
> necessarily prevent each of them from forming
> coalitions or winning
> bipartisan support on specific issues, noting that
> business supported a
> smattering of Democrats and labor supported a
> relatively small number of
> Republicans.
> 
> "We basically now have a coalition form of
> government," said U.S. Chamber
> of Commerce President Tom Donohue. "That presents
> some very interesting
> opportunities."
> 
> Both sides also vowed to press their legislative
> agendas, but were mindful
> of the possibilities for gridlock in Congress. Their
> strategies would be
> shaped largely by whether the White House goes to
> Gore or Bush, because of
> the president's power to initiate and influence
> legislation and affect
> policy through appointments and administrative
> action.
> 
> One sore point for labor was the independent
> presidential run of Green
> Party candidate Ralph Nader. The AFL-CIO's Sweeney
> said Nader had no
> measurable impact on union voters, but could very
> well cost Gore the
> presidency.
> 
> "We really find all of that reprehensible," Sweeney
> said. REUTERS@ 

=====
Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never has and it never will.
If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who eant crops without plowing the ground. They want run without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. -- Frederick Douglass

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Calendar - Get organized for the holidays!
http://calendar.yahoo.com/