Not content to let Enron screw its workers and other unionists holding pension fund investments with impunity, President Bush has invoked a seldom used parliamentary procedure to appoint the blatantly anti-worker Eugene Scalia to the Department of Labor. Bush acted Jan. 11, 2002 to install two conservative nominees, sidestepping the Democratic-controlled Senate. Scalia, son of ultra-conservative Supreme Court Justice Anton Scalia, was installed as Solicitor for the Labor Department and Otto Reich was installed as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) and the Senate Democrats had promised to submit Scalia’s nomination to the full Senate, but said that the conservative lawyer did not have the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster. Daschle said that Scalia’s “record of hostility toward worker protections would have made his confirmation unlikely.”
John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, called Scalia’s nomination a “slap in the face” to American workers. “Eugene Scalia’s nomination faced intense and broad opposition in the United States Senate and from an array of worker advocates,” he said.
The ILWU had lobbied the Senate and urged them to reject this antiworker nomination. In fact, many members took advantage of www.ilwu.org to send a letter urging a “no” vote for Scalia to their Senators.
The Solicitor of Labor is an extremely important and influential position within the Department of Labor and is recognized as third in rank in the department behind only the Secretary and the Deputy Secretary. Not only is the Solicitor the “top lawyer” within the Department, but he oversees a nationwide staff of 500 attorneys who are responsible for enforcing the 180 laws within the Department’s jurisdiction as well as defending the Department in litigation against it. The Solicitor is directly involved in providing advice and guidance on virtually every policy, legislative, regulatory and enforcement initiative of the Department and its various agencies. Finally, unlike other agencies, the Solicitor of Labor has a great deal of direct litigation authority and discretion, and can bring cases and file appeals without first obtaining the approval of the Department of Justice.
Otto Reich’s nomination was blocked in committee because of objections raised by Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CN), Chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee. Reich is one of several IranContra figures from the Reagan administration being recycled back into duty under Bush. He is a Cuban American who the Comptroller General of the U.S. found had engaged in public diplomacy efforts that were “prohibited, covert propaganda activities,” “beyond the range of acceptable agency public information activities….” The Comptroller General also concluded that Mr. Reich’s office had violated “a restriction on the State Department’s annual appropriations prohibiting the use of federal funds for publicity or propaganda purposes not authorized by Congress.”
Reich has also acted as a lobbyist for businesses with strong interests in Latin American policy. Democrats charged that Reich’s nomination was little more than a payback to the Cuban American community of Florida who helped elect Bush.
Under the rules governing recess appointments, both men will keep their jobs until the Senate adjourns this year. Unless they are appointed with the concurrence of the Senate’s majority leader, recess appointees typically stand little chance of ultimately winning Senate confirmation. Daschle was quoted as calling the Bush decision to make the appointments “regrettable.”
If that wasn’t bad enough, President Bush once again avoided the Senate confirmation process by using recess appointments to place two stridently anti-worker lawyers on the National Labor Relations Board on Jan. 22. Bush’s choice of Michael J. Bartlett, director of labor law policy at the United States Chamber of Commerce, and William B. Cowen, principle attorney for Institutional Labor Advisors LLC, signal an unwillingness to address the concerns of working men and women.
Legislative agenda—continued from page 6
Hear that claptrap, they need results. There is no compassion for America’s workers in ramming through huge tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations. This is money that should be spent on health care and jobs programs for workers. There is no compassion for America’s workers in ramming fast track through Congress so that good jobs flee the country in search of low-paid, exploited workers. There is no compassion in refusing to raise the minimum wage for struggling workers. And there is no compassion in refusing to extend unemployment benefits and health care for the millions of laid off workers during this severe recession. American workers need their fair share of the wealth of this country.
Finally, the House of Representatives will consider seaport security legislation. The Senate passed a version in December which does impose criminal background checks on some ILWU members. It would require the Secretary of Transportation to require the designation of controlled access areas in the Maritime Facility Security Plan for each waterfront facility and other covered entities, and require ports to limit access to security-sensitive information, such as passenger and cargo manifests. It allows the Secretary of Transportation to access FBI, fingerprint, and other crime data bases to conduct background investigations on port workers and transmit the results to port authorities for other covered entities.
The Senate bill does require participation of longshore unions on the local port security committees where much of the implementation of the law will take place. It is critical that active and vocal ILWU committee members participate at every single port where the ILWU represents members to advocate for workers. Meanwhile, we will need your help in the House of Representatives to pass legislation that enhances security through a partnership with workers rather than legislation that looks upon workers as suspect at the outset. Articles on seaport security legislation will follow in future Dispatcher and Waterfront Worker publications.
Longshore Caucus—continued from page 3
Report on legislative issues affecting the Division, especially the Maritime Security Act that has been so much of the union’s political focus. The Coast Legislative Action Committee also reported on its activities, done in conjunction with McLaughlin’s office, and on the need to continue the Division’s presence in the halls of Congress. At the committee’s suggestion the Caucus passed a motion for a one-time voluntary $50 assessment of members for its political action work.
The Education Committee reported on the success of its first seminar on the history of the union, the contract and the grievance and arbitration processes it held last spring. The committee plans to put on similar seminars in the future. At the committee’s recommendation the Caucus voted to contribute $25,000 to the International’s education program, the Leadership, Education And Development (LEAD) seminar.
The Budget Committee reported that the Divisions monetary affairs are very sound. Its general, emergency, fighting and legal funds are all in good shape.
Solidarity
As the negotiations approach, the Coast Committee has been lining up support in case things don’t go smoothly. The recent solidarity agreement with the Teamsters and the East and Gulf Coast International Longshoremen’s Association has brought together the three most powerful unions in the country’s transportation industry. The Teamster Port Division Director George Cashman, along with three Teamster West Coast International Vice Presidents, visited the Caucus to pledge their support for the ILWU in its negotiations.
Rick Newlyn from the Maritime Union of Australia, which represents both that country’s seafarers and longshore workers (or wharfies as they are called there), stopped by to once again thank the ILWU for its international solidarity when he and his mates were locked out and in a battle for the survival of their union almost four years ago. He offered his union’s solidarity should it be needed in the upcoming bargaining.
“If there is a breakdown in negotiations, the MUA will show its support,” Newlyn said. “We haven’t forgotten and we never will.”
Further shoring up international solidarity, the delegates voted to officially join the International Dockworkers Council (IDC), many of whose members attended the International Dockers Solidarity Conference the ILWU hosted in Southern California last summer. The Coast Committee will also attend the IDC’s next international conference in Charleston, South Carolina in early March.
The negotiating committee
The delegates wrapped up their deliberations by selecting the members of the Negotiating Committee from among their ranks, putting their trust in some of the wisest longshore veterans in the union. Besides the four Coast Committee officers, the union representatives will be: John Tousseau (Local 63), Joe Cortez (Local 13), Henry Graham (Local 10), Norm Parks (Local 8), Tony DePaul (Local 23), Larry Hansen (Local 19), Glen Anderson (Local 52), Rich Austin (Local 32), Larry Carleton (Local 46) and John Rapp (Local 4).