Home > John Sweeney on Labor Day
Remarks by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney at Labor Day
Reporter Roundtable August 28, 2003
As we come to Labor Day 2003, working America is facing
a crisis. It’s a jobs crisis and it’s the number 1 issue
facing Americans. Despite our so-called recovery, far
too many people are out of work and many have been out
of work for a long time. White collar as well as blue-
collar employees are losing jobs, and many of these jobs
aren’t coming back. And executives are slashing health
care and retirement benefits. President Bush has pulled
the rug out from under America’s working people and
rolled out a red carpet for the wealthy and giant
corporations.
There has been more net job loss under Bush than under
any President since Herbert Hoover. One Nobel prize
winning economist recently called the Bush economic
policies the worst in 200 years, adding that the Bush
tax cuts that predominantly benefited a wealthy few will
mean a 10-year budget deficit of nearly 6 trillion
dollars.
For the same money that Bush spent on millionaire tax
breaks, he COULD have stimulated the economy and created
jobs by building roads and schools, helped provide much-
needed health care, sent urgently-needed aid to the
states, and given tax breaks to the low and middle
income earners who need it and will spend it to get the
economy moving.
Labor Day was established to get respect for workers and
curb abuse by setting the eight-hour day. Workers have
struggled to put protections for workers into place for
150 years, and the result has been a solid middle class
and more time for families. But now the Bush
Administration is trying to take away protections
against excessive hours by excluding as many as 8
million workers from overtime pay.
There’s a disturbing pattern here. Employers are hiring
fewer workers here in the U.S. and working them longer -
and now the Bush administration is trying to make it
cheaper for them to work employees even longer with its
proposed changes to overtime rules. A vote on an
amendment to block the Bush regulations is expected to
take place in the Senate next week, and we are working
very hard to build support for that amendment.
In fact, Bush has attacked worker protections every
chance he’s gotten. He has slashed health and safety
protections, denied Homeland Security department and
federal screeners the basic freedom to form unions, and
is trying to privatize Medicare and Social Security.
In the face of the most anti-worker Administration in
decades, America’s workers are struggling to get a leg
up in this economy - - and many are trying to form
unions. Half a million workers formed a union last year
with one of our 64 union affiliates, and over 3 million
workers have formed unions since 1995. Although the pace
of new organizing is still not where we want it to be,
it is far greater than many people realize and greater
than it has been in decades.
This year, we expect to see major organizing efforts
among health care workers, roofers in Arizona,
California farm workers, auto workers, and state workers
in New Mexico, Illinois and New Jersey. The Cintas
laundry workers are fighting for a union with UNITE and
the Teamsters - - Cintas is the nation’s largest
industrial laundry, and the workers are organizing in
dozens of cities across the U.S.
Workers are organizing because, with a union, working
people win basic rights, such as a say in their jobs,
safety and security. An Economic Policy Institute paper
released earlier this week showed that unions raise
compensation, including wages and benefits, by 28
percent. And it showed that unions raise wages for
workers without a union as well. A high school graduate
without a union will see a bigger paycheck just because
he or she is working in an industry that’s more than a
quarter unionized.
What’s important to know is that more than 40 million
Americans say they would form a union tomorrow - - but
too few will ever have that chance. Cornell research
shows that 95 percent of private-sector employers fight
their workers’ efforts to organize a union — often
breaking the law. Three-quarters of employers force
workers to sit through closed-door meetings against the
union. Half illegally threaten to shut down if their
workers choose a union, and a quarter illegally fire
union supporters.
What employers do is shameful and wrong - - and our
communities suffer. When fewer workers have unions, the
standard of living falls for everyone and the gap
between the rich and poor grows.
That’s why this Labor Day, we’re launching a major
campaign to build nationwide support for workers’
freedom to choose a union. In city after city, community
and elected leaders are joining with unions to stand
with workers who are trying to form unions, and calling
on employers to honor this basic American right. Local
union leaders are organizing roundtables for workers who
are struggling to organize to sit down with elected
officials - and in fact, all the Democratic candidates
for President will meet with workers who are forming
unions. Most of those worker roundtables have already
taken place.
The AFL-CIO is also joining in the Immigrant Workers’
Freedom Ride to support immigrant rights, including
their freedom to organize unions. More than 60 buses,
filled with workers and immigrant rights advocates, will
converge here in DC and then in New York City in early
October.
And after watching the disastrous policies of the Bush
Administration, union members are ready to take on the
challenge of electing a working people’s president.
We’re planning the largest and earliest education and
mobilization effort ever for the 2004 elections. In
2002, 93 percent of union members say they received
election information from union sources, including from
fellow union members at the workplace. We will meet
that, and top it, in 2004.
The AFL-CIO just held our Presidential forum in early
August and, as you know, some unions have already
endorsed Dick Gephardt. Many unions are still going
through a membership education and polling process to
find out which Democratic candidate — if any — they
want to support.
We also asked President Bush to speak to our AFL-CIO
Executive Council in August or at any time of his
choosing this summer, and he declined. While we tend to
work more closely with Democratic presidents who share a
progressive working families agenda, the AFL-CIO has
always had a relationship with Republican
administrations too --- until this one. George Bush is
the first president with whom the president of the AFL-
CIO has never met since our founding - and I personally
think that is a travesty.
Next week in Detroit, I plan to announce the formation
of a new union — Working America - - which will be
directly affiliated with the AFL-CIO. There are millions
of working people who would like to be part of the AFL-
CIO’s efforts for social justice and who want a voice to
speak out and work to change the direction of this
country. Working America will give them that chance. We
will recruit for Working America in communities
nationwide, including knocking on doors to build support
for an even bigger push for legislation and policies
which help working families. It will focus on national,
as well as state and local legislation.
Finally, let me just say that I travel this country
constantly. People are very dissatisfied with the way
this country is going. They want jobs and the ability to
make a bread and butter living. They want affordable
health care, and they want their basic freedoms honored
on the job. This Labor Day, the union movement is
determined to continue to lead the fight for a better
America.