![](IMAGES/b0301.jpg)
The greatest freedom we have in America is our right to vote. Along
with solidarity, the greatest power workers' have is by exercising
their right to vote. As was said before, BMWE members know, like it or
not, if you work for a railroad, you have to be political. Your
contract, your safety, and your pension depend on being political. By
registering and voting in the upcoming elections, BMWE members are
fighting to protect their rights in the workplace, safeguarding their
retirement and increasing the power of the labor movement for all
working families.
And that's why delegates to the convention of the AFL-CIO
Transportation Trades Department (including the BMWE's Mac Fleming,
Bill LaRue, Joel Myron, Don Griffin, J. D. Knight, Ernie Torske, Rich
Lau, Henry Wise, Ken Deptuck, Jed Dodd) agreed July 20 to mobilize a
permanent force of political activists who will continue working
between national elections to "promote an agenda to create jobs,
improve safety and strengthen job security for millions of America's
transportation workers," said Transport Workers and TTD President
Sonny Hall. Speaking to the delegates July 21, Vice President Al Gore
said he will make workers' issues a key part of his agenda if he is
elected president.
While Railroad Retirement has been the legislative issue highest on
the BMWE agenda for the last two years, other issues important to
transportation labor and to the working families who make up
transportation labor were also considered this year and are outlined
on pages 9 and 10 in this JOURNAL next to the Voting Record of your
Congressmen in the 106th Congress.
Other issues that working families care deeply about - Medicare
prescription drug benefits, Patients' Bill of Rights, OSHA ergonomics
(repetitive strain and back injuries), NLRB funding, school
construction funding and even so-called "right to work" -
were considered on the House and/or Senate floors this year with
almost all Democrats voting with working families and almost all
Republicans voting with their big business constituency.
Prescription Drugs
As they raced toward a July 4 recess, congressional Republican
leaders turned their backs on seniors who need help to buy
prescription drugs. The House Ways and Means Committee approved a
measure that relies on insurance companies instead of Medicare to
provide prescription drug policies to seniors. The Republican bill,
"offers seniors little hope of getting access to the essential
but increasingly expensive drugs prescribed by their physicians,"
said AFL-CIO President Sweeney when the measure was introduced in
April.
Hiding behind the House rules, Republican leaders blocked an attempt
to vote on a bill that would add a guaranteed prescription drug
benefit to Medicare for all seniors. Instead, on June 28 they approved
(217-214) a plan (HR 4680) that would be administered primarily by
private insurance companies that will set their own terms and limits
on benefits, premiums, co-pays and deductibles.
"This bill does not provide prescription drug coverage for
senior citizens. It provides political coverage for Republicans,"
said Representative Robert Wexler (D-FL). The GOP bill "benefits
the companies who make the prescription drugs, not the seniors who
need to take them," said President Clinton, who promised to veto
the bill.
On June 22 in the Senate, Senators Robb (D-VA) and Graham (D-FL)
offered an amendment to an appropriation bill (HR 4577) that would
have provided prescription drugs to Medicare recipients. This bill
failed by a vote of 44-53. This bill was similar to the Democratic
plan being pushed in the House of Representatives.
On June 20 the AFL-CIO launched campaigns in 20 states to bring
down the costs of medications working families need to stay healthy.
The campaign was inspired by the passage of a law in Maine allowing
the state to harness its bulk purchasing power to negotiate discounts
for residents without shifting costs to taxpayers.
Patients' Bill of Rights
The Senate, in an almost party-line vote, lined up with the
insurance industry and against quality, affordable health care and
accountability for HMOs and rejected the Patients' Bill of Rights June
8. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) offered the health care legislation as
an amendment to the Department of Defense appropriations bill. The
proposed amendment was defeated 51-48, with four Republican lawmakers
joining all 44 Democrats supporting the bill.
"The Senate Republican leadership has irresponsibly avoided
key issues - including holding health plans accountable and making
sure workers with private insurance are covered - while working
families continue to be held hostage to their health plans by HMO
bureaucrats," said President Sweeney. Kennedy's amendment was
identical to the bipartisan House bill passed last year.
OSHA Ergonomics
More than 600,000 workers a year suffer serious injuries from
ergonomic hazards on the job.
Yet the House of Representatives, with the vast majority of
Republicans lining up with Big Business and against workers, voted
June 8 to prohibit the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
from issuing its long-awaited and desperately needed ergonomics
standard. The 220-203 vote, with 14 GOP members voting right and 16
Democrats voting wrong, retained a provision in the overall Labor,
Health and Human Services appropriations bill that bans OSHA from
going forward with the new rule. The House approved the full bill (HR
4577) with the ban on June 15.
In the Senate, ignoring a threatened presidential veto and on a
mostly party-line 57-41 vote, lawmakers approved an amendment to the
fiscal 2001 Labor/Health and Human Services/Education spending bill
that forbids OSHA from spending any funds on its proposed ergonomics
standard.
The AFL-CIO opposes the appropriations bill, which cuts funds for
OSHA, the National Labor Relations Board and skills-training programs
and does not contain money to reduce school class size or repair and
modernize the nation's schools.
Minimum Wage
When Congress increased the minimum wage in 1996 and 1997, contrary
to opponents' claims, low-wage jobs did not disappear, according to a
new study by the Economic Policy Institute. The study found that 63
percent of the gains from a $1-an-hour increase in the minimum wage
(currently $5.15 an hour) will go to households in the bottom 40
percent of income distribution and 71 percent of minimum-wage workers
are adults. Those on the Internet can see the complete report, The
Impact of the Minimum Wage, by visiting www.epinet.org. A related
report by the business think tank, the Conference Board, reveals that
the rate of poverty among families with full-time workers is
increasing.
Social Security
If a candidate for Congress claims to believe in strengthening
Social Security, they are being asked to take the pledge. The Sign the
Pledge Campaign - organized by a coalition of seniors groups, unions
and civil rights, community and religious organizations - asks
candidates to oppose privatization, reduction of benefits or
increasing the retirement age. It also commits the candidate to oppose
converting Medicare to a privatized voucher system or forcing
beneficiaries into HMOs and to support use of the budget surplus to
strengthen Social Security and Medicare and the creation of a Medicare
prescription drug benefit.
Even though most BMWE members will retire under Railroad
Retirement, they should know that the Tier I portion of their benefit
is the Social Security Equivalent Benefit. When changes are made to
Social Security, they are also made to Tier I, such as the recent
elimination of the cap on earnings. For more on Social Security, see
the separate article in this JOURNAL.
Anti-Hate Crimes
In one win for working families, the Senate June 20 passed 57-42 the
anti-hate crimes bill as an amendment to the Defense Authorization
Act. The amendment adds actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender
and disability to federal hate crimes laws, which currently include
race, color, national origin and religion.
NAFTA
The Steelworkers faced off with the federal government June 22
before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, seeking to
overturn the North American Free Trade Agreement. The union appealed a
lower court ruling last July that upheld NAFTA, even though it was not
ratified in 1993 by a two-thirds Senate vote as required by the U.S.
Constitution.
Campaign Finance Reform
Saying that the current system of campaign finance reform unfairly
rewards corporations and wealthy contributors by amplifying their
voice at the expense of ordinary working Americans, the AFL-CIO
Executive Council on May 3 reiterated its strong support for real
campaign finance reform that would eliminate unfair and undeserved
financial advantage, protect constitutional freedoms and encourage
openness and integrity in political debate and contests.
The 54-member AFL-CIO Executive council, representing 68 national
unions with 13 million working women and men, unanimously passed a
resolution calling for comprehensive campaign finance reform. The
Council called upon Congress to act decisively and to pass real reform
that gives working families more of a voice, not less.
"We must fundamentally reform the system so that wealth no
longer yields disproportionate influence. Working families must be
able to make their voices heard regardless of how much money they
bring to bear on the process," said AFL-CIO President John
Sweeney.
"Reform must be comprehensive; piecemeal changes simply prompt
big money to find new outlets," he added.
The AFL-CIO supports comprehensive reform including the following
six elements:
n Primary and general congressional as well as presidential
campaigns ought to be publicly financed, in order to reduce the impact
of money, and to free candidates to campaign rather than raise funds.
Modest limited individual and PAC contributions should be allowed only
as a prerequisite for a candidate to meet a qualifying threshold to
receive public funds.
n The current limits on individual contributions to federal
candidates and parties should be maintained or reduced, even absent
public financing, as proposals to increase these limits only magnify
the disproportionate influence to private wealth.
n The law should prohibit unregulated funds - so-called "soft
money" - that flows in even greater amounts to political parties
and party- and candidate-controlled political committees.
n Independent "soft money" political committees
established under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code should be
subject to strong registration and reporting requirements, such as
those federal law already imposes on "hard money" political
committees.
n Candidates should have free access to communications,
particularly to working and middle class Americans. Substantial free
television and radio time, and reduced postage rates, should be
available to candidates in order to control campaign costs and enhance
robust and wide debate about the people's business.
n The First Amendment protects the right to engage freely in public
issue advocacy; therefore, legal restraints on speech under the guise
of campaign finance reform are unwise, potentially unconstitutional,
and should be resisted.
The Executive Council also vowed to defend working families against
efforts by right wing groups, big business, the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, and Texas Governor George W. Bush to silence their voices in
the political process with deceptively named "paycheck
protection" measures that are pending in the U.S. Congress and in
some State Houses.
"Union members elect their own leaders, vote on their own
dues, and determine together how to use the union's resources.
'Paycheck protection' undermines union democracy and erodes the
principle of majority rule, and has no legitimate place in any genuine
campaign finance reform proposal," said Sweeney. |