O A H U D I V I S I O N P o l l i n g D a t e s , T i m e s a n d L o c a t i o n s —continued from page 15
In one of the first resolutions passed at the 2003 ILWU Interna tional Convention entitled “Take Our Country Back,” the delegates asserted that George W. Bush was never elected president by the American people, but rather was given the presidency by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that stopped the recount of the Florida vote. The resolution further states that since taking office in January 2001, Bush and his administration have been carrying out a right-wing agenda aimed at strengthening management rights and weakening and destroying the union movement in America.
From the very beginning of his administration, Bush has lashed out at organized labor and the workers of America. His first actions included overturning regulations designed to protect American workers from debilitating ergonomic injuries and
eliminating project labor agreements used to employ union construction workers for large infrastructure projects.
The resolution slammed Bush’s record and for good reason. Bush is by far the worst President in recent memory and arguably in history. Just last month, Cannon Pillowtex, manufacturer of towels and sheets, closed down and threw 7,000 union textile
workers out of their jobs. The closure was a direct result of Bush’s failed trade policies. In return for losing their jobs, Bush is sending the workers a couple hundred dollars—their share of the multi-billion dollar tax cut primarily benefiting millionaires.
Bush attacks the ILWU
We know the Bush administration repeatedly threatened to shut down and shut up the members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union during West Coast longshore contract talks last year. The administration got a Taft-Hartley injunction to end the 13-day lockout of our members, giving hope to the employers that they could use the opportunity to place the union in contempt of court. It threatened to seize the docks with federal troops and break up the ILWU coastwise contract into a number of regional contracts, thereby gutting the strength of the union. The ILWU was and continues to be targeted by the
Bush administration, which is ready to shoot at will whenever it deems the timing is right.
We are not the only union that has been slapped by Bush’s anti-worker attacks.
In the fall of 2002 Bush insisted on language in the Homeland Security bill that eliminated collective bargaining rights and civil service protections for 170,000 employees in the Department of Homeland Security. He followed that outrageous act
by denying collective bargaining rights to 60,000 newly federalized airline screeners.
I’ll never forget an incident during the Bush-Gore fight over whether to count the ballots in Florida that would ultimately decide the 2000 election. On one side a group of Amtrak workers argued for Bush—he was going to give them a tax cut.
On the other side, a group of workers committed to Gore saw the big picture. They argued that they may get a tax cut, but Bush was going to try to take away their union contract and jobs. How prophetic. The Bush administration continues to try to
privatize Amtrak and outsource jobs to low-income, non-union workers. In 2002 it attempted to force Amtrak to abrogate the collective bargaining agreement with its workers.
Playing on our fear of terrorism
Ever since 9/11, Bush has used the pretext of national security and the threat of terrorism to deprive American workers of their union rights. We know his rapid denial of collective bargaining rights to federal workers has nothing to do with security—it’s about de-unionizing the country. We also know Bush pushed for broad criminal background checks on the
nation’s transportation workers and databases of security-risk individuals to give employers an easy way to rid the transportation industry of union activists and agitators.
Recently, the Bush administration issued a rule that allowed the Transportation Security Administration and Federal Aviation Administration to revoke an aviation worker’s certification without basic due process protections. The new rule was issued and took effect without any public comment period. It allows the government to revoke or deny needed federal certification for pilots,mechanics, flight instructors and other aviation workers if the government—under secretive and arbitrary procedures—concludes a worker is a “security threat.” The rule denies an employee the right to an impartial review of the facts and does not require workers be shown evidence or be told the specific reasons behind a security risk finding.
The Bush administration will use the same databases to ferret out members of the ILWU under the Maritime Transportation Security Act. However, we worked hard to incorporate due process procedures into the Act and insisted that the standard for these so-called databases be “terrorism security risk” rather than just “security risk.” But if the Bush administration can deny
rights and liberties to our workers, it will. The only real way to change this dark and disturbing trend is to change the regime in Washington. We need a new president who will listen to the working people and their union representatives and act for social justice. (Part II, next issue)
