Archive for December 2nd, 2008
Gallup: America Still Strongly Supports Unions
Despite the best efforts of corporate-backed anti-union groups, the Bush White House and anti-worker politicians demonizing unions on the campaign trail, most Americans continue to approve of unions, as they have for the past seven decades.
The latest update from Gallup on union support shows 59 percent of those surveyed back unions, while 29 percent disapprove of them. According to Gallup:
Americans have generally held a favorable view of unions for decades—with no less than 55 percent of Americans saying they approve of labor unions in Gallup polls conducted from 1936 to 2008.
Bush Denies Bargaining Rights to 8,600 Federal Workers
In a final-days attack on workers’ rights, President Bush yesterday issued an executive order that denies collective bargaining rights to about 8,600 federal employees who work in national security, law enforcement and intelligence.
Nearly 1,000 of the workers currently are represented by a union, and some have been for more than 30 years. The biggest group affected by the order is the 5,000 employees of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which is now part of the Justice Department.
Peter Winch, national organizer for AFGE, the largest federal employee union, says the union is determined to fight the executive order.
Bush Spends Record Amount for Corporate Contracting
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Early in his tenure, President Bush announced plans to eliminate the jobs of hundreds of thousands of federal workers and hand them over to private corporations.
Bush’s goal to turn over the work of the government to corporate contractors “has made history,” according a recent two-part-series by NPR’s Daniel Zwerdling, who reports:
“Since President Bush took office, the government has doubled the amount of contracts with industry. The administration paid corporations more than $400 billion last year to work for everybody from the Forest Service to the CIA.
“The administration has given the majority of that contract money to companies that didn’t have to compete to get it—or faced only limited competition.”
Since 2001, according to Zwerdling, the Bush administration has spent more than $2.2 trillion on contracts with private industry for
…corporations to perform the kinds of services that federal employees normally do.
Today’s the Day: Get Out the Georgia Vote in Senate Runoff
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Georgia voters head to the polls today in the runoff election for the U.S. Senate. It’s a close race between incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a Bush ally and opponent of working families, and AFL-CIO endorsed Jim Martin, who’s putting up a strong pro-worker challenge.
If Martin wins today, he’ll be the 59th pro-worker elected to the Senate this year to help break the grip of obstruction that has blocked important legislation on health care, the economy and the freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life. Chambliss is the embodiment of that obstruction, voting against working family-friendly legislation—from veterans benefits to children’s health care and the Employee Free Choice Act.
