NEW ORLEANS — As labor leaders gather here, they are grumbling that many of the issues that American workers care deeply about — issues like soaring health care costs and safeguarding Social Security — are largely absent from the nation’s political dialogue, eclipsed by the war on terrorism and the Republican push for tax cuts, reports the New York Times.
So at the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s executive council meeting, they agreed today to try to shift the nation’s focus to worker-related issues.
They hope this strategy will highlight President Bush’s political weaknesses and help elect candidates friendly to worker causes. They agreed to an assessment on the federation’s 66 unions that will raise $17 million more for political efforts over the next three years.
“There is a lack of talk this year about the issues that workers care about,” said Gerald McEntee, chairman of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s political committee and president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “This can be traced to Bush’s popularity and to the war against terrorism. But the problems that existed for working people before Sept. 11 still exist. We feel it’s the role of the American labor movement to put these issues on the nation’s agenda.”
In a resolution, the labor leaders listed issue after issue that they say political leaders should focus on: the lack of strategies to create jobs, the expiration of unemployment insurance after 26 weeks, the loss of manufacturing jobs, rising prescription costs, tax cuts that cause the government to dig into Social Security money, and fears that workers’ retirement savings can be wiped out.
These leaders point to focus groups and polls showing that while workers are concerned about the war on terrorism, how they vote will be most influenced by bread-and- butter issues and the economy.
“These working-family issues are not on the front burner,” said John J. Sweeney, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. president. “I think the election this November is going to be on these very issues.”
It is a difficult time for labor. Unions have been unable to reverse membership declines. They worked to elect Al Gore, but now they have a president who often takes actions hostile to labor. The recession has knocked the wind out of many unionized industries and unions.
Then there are tensions between unions. For example, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters voted against the new assessment, which will require unions to pay 4 cents more per member per month.
Michael Mathis, the Teamsters’ political director, said his union opposed the assessment because the federation planned to spend some of that money on the Democratic candidate it backed for governor of Michigan, David E. Bonior, when the Teamsters favored another Democrat, Jennifer Granholm.
In addition, the Teamsters say the A.F.L.-C.I.O. leans strongly toward Democrats when the Teamsters have been strengthening ties with Republicans, working closely with them on Mr. Bush’s proposal to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao spoke to the labor leaders today, and she urged other unions to join the Teamsters in backing Mr. Bush’s energy plan.
“We need a significant number of Republicans to support us on a wide range of issues, including aggressive labor-law reform,” Mr. Mathis said. “We have to build a base of support in the Republican Party. Any way you put it, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. dues increase is going to be seen as a pool of money to be used to beat Republicans.”
The federation’s leaders said they would focus their energies this fall on two dozen House races, a dozen Senate races and 22 governor’s races, especially those in New York, California and Illinois.
Representative Richard A. Gephardt, the House Democratic leader, spoke to the labor leaders this morning, asking them to help restore Democratic control of the House. But Steve Rosenthal, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s political director, hedged, saying: “We’re not saying that our goal is to have a Democratic majority in the House. We want to have a pro-working-family majority in the House. But sure, we’d rather have Dick Gephardt as speaker.”
Carl Forti, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said, “I think it’s great that they’re supporting more Republicans, but I think there are a lot of Democrats up there who aren’t worthy of their support.”
For labor leaders, the Enron scandal provides ammunition against the Bush administration.
Geoff Garin, a Democratic pollster, said: “Before Sept. 11, union members had a clear perception that the Bush administration had abandoned any semblance of an even playing field between workers and corporations. And now with the emergency of Enron, that perception has come back stronger than ever.”