Adding insult to labor's injuries By Molly Ivins Creators Syndicate This poignant Labor Day, when the numbers are bad, the policies are worse and the jobs are disappearing, it's not so much the economy that riles me as the disrespect and the gratuitous contempt with which this administration treats working Americans. The old insult to injury. If we've had an administration so blinkered by class blinders before, it is not within my memory. What these people know about working-class Americans would fit in a gnat's eye. In the summer of 2002, when Ted Kennedy and the since-deceased Paul Wellstone were working to get an emergency extension on unemployment benefits -- something that has been largely pro forma under earlier administrations -- Rep. Tom DeLay protested that Democrats want "unlimited unemployment so people could stay out of work for the rest of their lives." Actually, 1 million unemployed workers had already exhausted their benefits before the House finally acted in January 2003 and were simply left in the streets with nothing under the too-little, too-late Bush bill. The idea that workers lead the life of Riley on unemployment compensation and want to "stay out of work for the rest of the lives" is so blatantly untrue that it would be comical if one could dredge up a laugh. Anyone who has been through the mill of unemployment, with the endless rounds of appointments, waiting, applications, interviews, taking the bus to the job training program and finally walking when you can't afford a bus, knows precisely how insulting this hooey is. In February, one of the most extraordinary sessions ever recorded between labor and a sitting labor secretary took place. Secretary Elaine Chao, whose chief qualification for the job seems to be that she is the wife of right-wing Sen. Mitch McConnell, met with the AFL-CIO's executive council. "Participants said Chao shocked the group by opposing any increase in the minimum wage, showing no sympathy for retired steelworkers who lost pension benefits, and reciting a list of legal actions her department has taken against unions and their leaders," reported The Washington Post. "We had a pretty unbelievable session," said John J. Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO. "She was angry at points, insulting at points. I said that in all my years in labor, I've never seen a secretary so anti-labor." "There was a lot of shock and amazement in the room," said Leo Gerard, president of the Steelworkers union. "We were made to feel we were the enemy." Fortunately, Chao's condescending, insulting and hostile performance quite united labor, including the building trades and the Teamsters, against the Bush administration. Nothing like a little old-fashioned solidarity. Another insulting episode came when Bush named Eugene Scalia (son of the Supreme Court justice) as solicitor of the Department of Labor, apparently as a cruel joke. Scalia's specialty as a K Street lobbyist was fighting ergonomic regulations. For years he attacked and mocked the very idea of repetitive stress injuries, calling them "junk science," "exotic and absurd, like a trip through Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean." "Work less, and you'll feel better! Why I've experienced the same thing myself!" He has written that heavy lifting does not cause back strain and that reported increases in repetitive stress injuries are caused by "feeding frenzies." Try doing the same thing hundreds and hundreds of times an hour, hour after hour, day after day, week after week. Has Scalia, who has since left the post, or President Bush ever held a job that involved physical labor? One of this administration's first actions was to repeal the ergonomic regulations that prevent repetitive stress. Two years later, the administration solved the entire problem with characteristic brilliance: It revoked the provision requiring employers to report such injuries! This was almost as good as the time that the administration solved global warming by simply editing it out of an environmental report. Just the other day, Bush said he had been elected to "solve problems," and, boy howdy, does he. Even better, he's solving the entire problem of workplace injuries and deaths by trying to weaken OSHA! A new House bill would reduce penalties and weaken OSHA's enforcement powers to correct safety and health standards. About 6 million American workers are injured on the job every year, and more die in workplace accidents annually than were killed during the Sept. 11 attacks. Ha-ha-ha, how funny -- let's just have companies stop reporting these things. I know as well as you do that many companies make a terrific effort on worker safety. Bush's first Treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill, was justly proud of the record at Alcoa. (He's the one the White House fired, of course.) Perhaps there are a few people on worker's comp who seem to have no trouble lifting their bass boats off the trailer. But I happen not to find thousands of dead and millions of injured workers annually funny. No one doubts that this administration will continue to defraud the workers of America -- but I'd appreciate it if these people would can the sarcasm in the meantime.
THE GRINCH THAT STOLE LABOR DAY by Greg Palast Friday, August 29, 2003 In celebration of the working person's holiday, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao has announced the Bush Administration's plan to end the 60-year-old law which requires employers to pay time-and-a-half for overtime. I'm sure you already knew that -- if you happened to have run across page 15,576 of the Federal Register. According to the Register, where the Bush Administration likes to place it's little gifts to major campaign donors, 2.7 million workers will lose their overtime pay for a "benefit" of $1.53 billion. I put "benefit" in quotes because, in the official cost-benefit analysis issued by Bush's Labor Department, the amount employers will now be able to slice out of workers' pockets is tallied on the plus side of the rules change. Nevertheless, workers getting their pay snipped shouldn't complain, because they will all be receiving promotions. These employees will be re-classified as managers exempt from the law. The change is promoted by the National Council of Chain Restaurants. You've met these 'managers' - they're the ones in the beanies and aprons whose management decisions are, "Hold the lettuce on that." My favorite of Chao's little amendments would re-classify as "exempt professionals" anyone who learned their skill in the military. In other words, thousands of veterans will now lose overtime pay. I just can't understand why Bush didn't announce that one when he landed on the aircraft carrier. CHOICE NUMBER FOUR: BREAK THE LAW Now I should say that, according to Chao's press office, the changes will actually extend overtime benefits to 1.3 million burger flippin' managers. How does that square with the billion dollar "benefit" to business owners? Simple: The Chao hounds at the Labor Department suggest that employers CUT WAGES so that, added to the new "overtime" pay, the employes won't actually take home a dime more. I can hear the moaners and bleeding hearts saying this sounds like the Labor Department is telling Big Business how to evade the law. Yep, that's what the Department is doing. Right there on page 15,576 of the Federal Register it says, "Affected employers would have four choices concerning potential payroll costs: … (4) converting salaried employees' basis of pay to an hourly rate that result in virtually no changes to the total compensation paid those workers." And in case some employer is dense as a president and doesn't get the hint, Madame Chao repeats, "…The fourth choice above results in virtually no (or only a minimal) increase in labor costs." For decades the courts have thrown the book at cheapskate bosses who chisel workers out of legal overtime by cutting base pay this way … but now they'll have a new defense: Bush made me do it. But then, there likely will not be any cases against employers anyway since Chao herself is supposidly the labor cop whose job it is to stop paycheck theft. She's well qualified for that job. Her resume reads, "Married to Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky." I called her press office to ask if she qualifies for overtime, but they'd left the office early. And there is good news for our sporting President. Word from the White House is he'll be golfing on the Labor Day weekend. Under Chao's rules he need not worry if he wants to replay that hole. "Exempt professionals" who cannot earn overtime - once defined as doctors, lawyers and those with specialized college degrees - will now include anyone who provides skilled advice … like caddies ("You might try the other end of the club, Mr. President"). THE ACORN FALLS ONLY SO FAR Finally, on this Labor Day weeend, it's time this nation took a cold look at the issue of hard-core unemploymen. Neo-conservatives have warned us about families that pass on joblessness from generation to generation. Take, for example, the sad case of the Bush family. When Poppy Bush was president unemployment hit a generational high of over 9 million Americans. Bill Clinton, through education and hard work, put more than 3 million of those citizens back on the job. Now Bush Junior, repeating his family pattern of encouraging joblessness, has presided over the return of unemployment for 9 million Americans. This was not unexpected, sociologists warn us. Hard core unemployment, through failed schooling and a don't-care attitude, takes on a nearly genetic character. The acorn falls only so far from the tree. Especially when the nut falls on its head.
you guys are out of control... every other thread is some alarmist article followed by posts talking about the beginnings of the next Reich. "are we about to lose in Afghanistan?" "are civil rights a thing of the past?" "are we about to set off a civil war in Iraq?" "are we just a little too paranoid?" i do not remember daily theads during the clinton administration days like this...but i may just be conveniently forgetting...i acknowledge that as a possibility. but the doomsday, "cross my fingers and maybe we'll start getting our collective ass kicked in Iraq and elsewhere so Bush will look bad" mentality is getting a bit silly.
I think that this response is appropriate for some threads, but this was a very timely thread for the Labor Day holiday. I can't comment on the Clinton threads since I wasn't hanging out here during his presidency, but judging by the coverage in the mainstream media, I would bet that he was being lambasted by conservatives just about everywhere. And, BTW, I NEVER hope that we get our a$$es kicked anywhere just because I want Bush to look bad. I personally think Bush does a fine job of looking bad even when our troops are kicking a$$ and taking names. Go troops!!!
i'm sure no one actually feels that way...but it certainly creates the perception of that, andy, when thread after thread gets started relying more and more on possible negatives to drive home a point about the administration.
In another attack on workers, the Admin is trying to cut the raises of Fedeal employees. Of course no mention of national emergency when he disruptee government budgets by tax breaks to the wealthy. *********************** http://news.findlaw.com/scripts/pri...ies/a/w/1151/8-28-2003/20030828060004_12.html Bush Plans to Cut Federal Pay Raises By LEIGH STROPE AP Labor Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Citing a national emergency that has existed since the 2001 terrorist attacks, President Bush said Wednesday he will cut the pay raises that most civilian federal employees were to receive in January. In a letter to congressional leaders, Bush said he was using his authority to change the pay structure in times of "national emergency or serious economic conditions" to limit raises to 2 percent. Federal employees covered by the government's general schedule pay system were to receive a 2.7 percent across-the-board boost of basic pay and also an increase based on private-sector wages in the areas where they work, called locality pay. About 1.2 million of the 1.8 million civilian federal work force are under the general schedule system and would be affected by the change, according to the Office of Personnel Management. Bush said granting those full raises would cost about $11 billion more than he had proposed in his budget. "Such cost increases would threaten our efforts against terrorism or force deep cuts in discretionary spending or federal employment to stay within budget," Bush wrote. "Neither outcome is acceptable." Bush set the across-the-board raise at 1.5 percent, with the remaining 0.5 percent for locality pay. Military personnel aren't affected. Bush has proposed a 4.1 percent raise for them starting in January. The government faces a record $480 billion shortfall in 2004, congressional budget analysts said this week. Bush also has proposed $500 million in the new budget for performance-based raises for federal workers and urged congressional passage. "Providing higher pay for employees whose exceptional performance is critical to the achievement of the agency mission is preferable to spreading limited dollars across the board to all employees regardless of their individual performance or contribution," he said. Bush said any pay raise above 2 percent likely would go unfunded by Congress anyway, and agencies would be forced to absorb the additional cost. Departure rates also are at an all-time low of 1.7 percent, he said. Bush's decision to limit raises - his second - is another blow to the civilian federal work force, which is the target of sweeping changes the administration is making to the government bureaucracy. The administration is moving forward with plans to let private companies compete for nearly half the 1.8 million federal jobs. It stripped the collective bargaining rights of some federal employees at the Justice and Homeland Security departments and for airport screeners. Defense Department employees may lose theirs as well. While limiting raises for federal workers, the White House two years ago restored cash bonuses for some 2,100 political appointees at federal agencies. The Clinton administration had stopped the practice after concluding the first Bush administration used the system to reward political cronies with nearly $400,000 before leaving office. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney called the president's move to limit raises "shameful." "Bush is making federal employees pay for his own fiscal recklessness," he said. "While Bush is cutting workers' wages in the name of fighting terrorism, he has meanwhile pushed through unaffordable millionaire tax cuts that do nothing to create jobs and which worsen our nation's long-term economic prospects." Federal pay also was an issue during negotiations over the current budget, in which Bush broke with the normal custom of giving military personnel and civilian employees similar raises. The military received a 4.1 percent raise in basic pay. But Bush cited the national emergency created by the war on terrorism in holding the civilian pay increase to 3.1 percent.
The people in power get more flak simply as a result of being in power, especially when there are people who are dissatisfied with the way things are going. Fair or not, if people are being hurt by the economy, whoever is in power at the time will get the complaints.
Being in power must be a good thing. You would think that more people that aren't in power would strive to get there instead of whining about the bad breaks that kept them out of power. Ah, what do I know anyway? DD
I don't think the sky is falling, either. But should we wait until the sky is falling before voicing grave concerns about national security, fiscal policy, foreign affairs, environmental regulation, war, and, most importantly, our civil rights? Most Americans have dire reservations about this administration when it comes to these major issues. It's our responsibility as Americans to demand that our civil servants respect our wishes and carry out Democracy. Questioning the government is at the very heart of a healthy free society.
GreenVegan, MOST Americans DO NOT have concerns about those issues concerning the administration. MOST Americans are happy with the direction the country is going. At least by MOST polls. DD
God, how I hate living in a free market. I think we should all be equally miserable. EDIT: Oh, almost forgot my
Unemployment is much lower than 8%. It is slightly above 6%, but this is a horrible indicator of the strength of the economy.
So some of you are complaining about the complaints? You should be those lucky souls who are going to be "promoted" out of their overtime pay... courtesy of the Bush Administration. Veterans not exempted... According to the Register, where the Bush Administration likes to place it's little gifts to major campaign donors, 2.7 million workers will lose their overtime pay for a "benefit" of $1.53 billion. I put "benefit" in quotes because, in the official cost-benefit analysis issued by Bush's Labor Department, the amount employers will now be able to slice out of workers' pockets is tallied on the plus side of the rules change. Nevertheless, workers getting their pay snipped shouldn't complain, because they will all be receiving promotions. These employees will be re-classified as managers exempt from the law. The change is promoted by the National Council of Chain Restaurants. You've met these 'managers' - they're the ones in the beanies and aprons whose management decisions are, "Hold the lettuce on that." My favorite of Chao's little amendments would re-classify as "exempt professionals" anyone who learned their skill in the military. In other words, thousands of veterans will now lose overtime pay. I just can't understand why Bush didn't announce that one when he landed on the aircraft carrier. Just in case you missed it the first go 'round. And courtesy of rimrocker.
