by Mike Hall
The 3,000-plus union leaders and activists at the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) National Legislative Conference had plenty to cheer about when Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) pledged their support for rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, workers’ freedom to join unions and other key working family priorities.
They also had plenty to boo about when Obama and Clinton peeled back the mask that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has used to disguise his proposals on the economy and more—revealing the face of President Bush’s failed and flawed policies that have brought the nation economic chaos, out-of-reach health care and record gasoline prices.
Between Obama’s Tuesday appearance and Clinton’s address today, delegates hit Capitol Hill to lobby their senators and representatives to protect prevailing wage standards, end abuse by employers classifying workers as so-called independent contractors and extend unemployment benefits and affordable quality health care.
Kicking off the three-day conference Monday, BCTD President Mark Ayers praised the hard work and political activism of the 13 BCTD-member unions and their members in the 2006 elections but also warned the stakes in 2008 are so high that it will require even harder work this year.
It is crucial that we finish what we started in 2006 so our friends in Congress have the necessary majorities to actually get pro-worker legislation passed….With more hard work you can be in position to finish the job you started in ’06, with the thrill of victory as opposed to the agony of defeat….We have the chance to return the White House to a pro-worker, pro-middle class president.
Ayers and AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who spoke to the conference yesterday, told delegates that both Democratic candidates have solid pro-union and working family records. Sweeney said union voters have “two terrific candidates to choose from.” Said Ayers:
There is no doubt about it, that we are going to have a solid labor-friendly Democratic candidate for president of the United States….In Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, we have two very strong and steadfast friends of the building trades.
Pointing to the nearly eight years of the Bush administration’s war on workers waged by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), in which it repeatedly has rolled back workers’ freedom to form unions and get fair treatment on the job, both Clinton and Obama vowed to restore “labor” to the board. Said Obama:
They’ve packed the labor relations board with their corporate buddies. Well, we’ve got news for them, it’s not the Department of Management. It is Department of Labor and we’re here to take it back.
This morning, Clinton told the delegates:
I will appoint people to the National Labor Relations Board who are not anti-union and I will appoint a Secretary of Labor who is actually pro-labor.
Both pledged to fight to get Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and sign it when it hits the Oval Office desk. Said Clinton:
I will call on Congress to pass it in the first 100 days and I will travel the county taking our case to the American people, convincing them, it was unions who helped to create the middle class and one of the reasons it is shrinking today is because the American labor movement has been under assault. The Employee Free Choice Act is good for all Americans.
Said Obama:
It’s time we had a president who didn’t choke saying the word “union.”…We need to strengthen our unions by letting them do what they do best—organize our workers. If a majority of workers want a union, they should get a union. And that is why I’ll fight for and why I intend to sign the Employee Free Choice Act when it lands on my desk in the White House.
The pair of presidential hopefuls took a look at McCain. While both offered respect for McCain’s military service, they noted that’s about the only thing that sets him apart from Bush. McCain’s polices are nearly indistinguishable from the Bush administration’s. Said Obama:
Now John McCain seems to the think the Bush years have been pretty good, because he is offering more of the same….He’s running for a third Bush term. I don’t think America can afford four more years of the failed Bush policies and that’s what he’s offering.
Clinton called McCain “dead wrong on all the important issues facing America.” Pointing to McCain’s economic agenda he released yesterday, she said.
Yesterday, he made it clear, when it comes to the economy, he’ll dig a hole just as President Bush has done, except he says, “let’s go deeper.”
Earlier, Ayers outlined McCain’s record on issues central to building trades workers.
Let me be specific: He has consistently voted to slash the Davis-Bacon Act, and the wages of American construction workers. He voted against the Employee Free Choice Act. He supported disastrous trade agreements that have undercut good American jobs. The list goes on and on….
If you like George Bush, you’re going to love John McCain.
The delegates also heard from several other prominent lawmakers and political experts, including Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee; Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.); Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D), via video, for whom BCTD and other union members played a key role in his 2007 victory; and political analysts James Carville and Charlie Cook.
Click here and here for video highlights from the first two days of the conference.
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