Monday December 3 8:32 PM ET
AFL-CIO Chief Says Bush Waging War on Workers
By Peter Szekely
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - AFL-CIO President John Sweeney urged union leaders on Monday to ``take the offensive in a war here at home'' against the president, congressional Republicans and corporations who he accused of waging a war on workers.
Walking a fine line between support for President Bush (news - web sites)'s response to the Sept. 11 attacks and condemnation of his other policies, Sweeney kicked off the 66-union federation's biennial convention with a call to recruit 1 million new union members a year and elect more labor-friendly lawmakers.
``Brothers and sisters, in the months ahead, we must take the offensive in a war here at home, even as we support the president and our troops in the conflict abroad,'' Sweeney said in prepared remarks to nearly 1,000 delegates gathered here.
``President Bush and his administration are doing an excellent job of waging war on the terrorists and we commend them for that,'' he said. ``But at the same time, he and his corporate backers are waging a vicious war on working families ... and we condemn them for that.''
Sweeney decried Republicans in Congress for resisting direct aid to idled workers in their economic stimulus package, Bush for seeking ``fast track'' authority to deny the Senate from amending trade deals and pharmaceutical companies for seeking to capitalize on the bioterrorism scare.
``Corporate behavior and congressional inaction during our time of national crisis stand in sickening contrast to the heroism and sacrifice of working families,'' he said.
The delegates have come to a city whose heavily unionized workforce and tourism-based economy of hotels, casinos and glitzy shows have been rocked by the aftershocks of Sept. 11.
Union workers have been hard-hit by the country's first recession in 10 years and the Sept. 11 attacks. The recession has wiped out 887,000 jobs since it started in March, including 415,000 in October.
RECORD UNION VOTER TURNOUT
Earlier, Sweeney said the AFL-CIO would urge its affiliated unions with 13.2 million members to top last year's record turnout of union voters in the 2002 elections as part of an all-out effort to elect labor-friendly lawmakers.
Although Sweeney has failed to reverse the decline in union membership in the six years following his insurgency campaign to revitalize the labor movement, his administration has succeeded in making labor a more formidable political force that has contributed to Democratic wins in several states.
An exit poll after the 2000 elections showed that union households accounted for a record 26 percent of voters, up from 19 percent in 1994. About two-thirds of them voted Democratic.
The effort to boost union voter turnout comes as AFL-CIO leaders seek to apply their political successes to their frustrating efforts to sign up nonunion workers, which have failed to keep pace with elimination of union jobs.
Sweeney said the federation is asking elected officials who want labor backing to commit to publicly supporting organizing drives, if asked. Those who refuse would be viewed by labor with the same scorn as those who vote against labor on key issues like trade, he said.
``We're urging our members to hold politicians accountable and to support the efforts of workers to organize,'' he said.
Even as the delegates met, Congress was wrestling with an economic stimulus package and the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on Thursday on a bill to give the president ''trade promotion authority,'' or ``fast track.''
STOPPING TRADE BILL
Sweeney said he was confidant that unions would stop the trade bill as they have in the past. The federation is running a series of television ads urging defeat of the bill.
``We're doing more of what we've done before,'' he said.
One of the tactics the federation will use is a telephone bank-filled war room at the convention site which union leaders here will use to lobby lawmakers in Washington.
The AFL-CIO also is pushing its $60 billion economic stimulus plan to help laid-off workers with health care costs and to improve jobless benefits.
The erosion of labor's share of the work force since the 1950s, when about one-third of all workers were union members, continued in the Sweeney years, falling to 13.5 percent last year -- only 9 percent in the private sector -- from 14.9 percent in 1995.
Sweeney, 67, and other top AFL-CIO officers whose insurgent campaigns promised to reinvigorate the labor movement in 1995, are set to be nominated for another set of four-year terms on Wednesday with no opposition expected.
Convention speakers will include House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt, Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (news - web sites), Rev. Jesse Jackson (news - web sites) and several foreign labor leaders. Bush and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao declined invitations to speak.