[lbo-talk] An Anti-Labor Day

Nathan Newman nathanne at nathannewman.org
Tue Sep 7 11:35:06 PDT 2004


----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>

Nathan Newman wrote:
>Fine, so when are they going to vote for some *pro*labor legislation?
>2002 Supported Homeland Security law with union protection of government
>workers. Bill filibustered by GOP.
>2001 Dems overwhelmingly voted to sustain Clinton's ergonomics standards,
>but lost to vote by GOP. See http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2001/roll033.xml
>1994 Cesar Chavez Act to ban replacement workers. Filibustered by
GOP....

-That's 6 examples over 37 years, with gaps of 8, 4, 16, and 7 -years!!!! They controlled both houses of Congress for a good bit of -that period. Surely you and they can do better than that.

I didn't bother to include the minimum wage, Americans with Disabilities Act, FMLA and a range of other laws to focus on straight up NLRA reform. (There are numerous other failed amendments to other bills I could point to, but they went even less far in the face of GOP opposition.)

And guess what-- when the bill gets filibustered after a lot of effort, you don't waste time on another effort until the political environment changes. You got serious attempts at reform after the Johnson landslide in 1964, after the Carter victory, and after the Clinton victory (yes Reaganism meant a big gap in any serious attempt).

Folks seem to be demanding that Democrats prove their pro-labor credentials by wasting time on unwinnable bills, instead of concentrating on the legislation they can pass.

-- Nathan Newman



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