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Obama Reverses Bush Executive Orders, Creates Middle Class Task Force |
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President Barack Obama today reversed three Bush-era anti-worker executive orders and created a Cabinet-level task force to rebuild the nation’s middle class. In a White House ceremony this morning attended by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and other union leaders, Obama signed three executive orders that reverse a series of orders by then-President George W. Bush, which govern the way federal contractors deal with unionized workers.
The three new executive orders:
- Require federal service contractors to offer jobs to current workers when contracts change.
- Reverse a Bush order requiring federal contractors to post notice that workers can limit financial support of unions serving as their exclusive bargaining representatives.
- Prevent federal contractors from being reimbursed for expenses meant to influence workers deciding whether to form a union and engage in collective bargaining.
Before signing the orders, Obama said:
We cannot have a strong middle class without strong labor unions. We need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests.
Obama also announced creation of the White House Task Force on Middle Class Working Families to develop and coordinate policies to rebuild the nation’s middle class and lift the poor out of poverty. Vice President Joe Biden will chair the task force.
The task force has set up a new website, www.strongmiddleclass.gov/, where workers can submit stories and ideas about how the economy has affected them and ideas on changing it.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says:
The Task Force on Middle Class Working Families and the executive orders are the first step in a long road to restore balance between workers and corporations. As the weeks and months continue, we thank God that we have a president, vice president, and Congress who are determined to fix our economy so that it works for everyone.
Writing in USA Today, Biden says after the economy is jump-started by the new stimulus package, the top economic priority must be to rebuild the middle class.
On top of this urgent task, though, we have an important long-term task as well. Once this economy starts growing again, we need to make sure the benefits of that growth reach the people responsible for it. We can’t stand by and watch as that narrow sliver of the top of the income scale wins a bigger piece of the pie—while everyone else gets a smaller and smaller slice.
In government, as in life, you need clear goals to succeed. In the Obama/Biden administration, we have set a very clear goal: Our administration will have succeeded if the middle class once again starts to share in the economic success of this nation.
School Administrators President Jill Levy, who attended today’s signing, said in a statement:
This morning President Barack Obama welcomed labor back into the White House, where it has not been welcome for the last eight years. By announcing the creation of the Task Force on Middle Class Working Families, President Obama and Vice President Biden have assured all that they see growing the middle class and building a strong labor movement as inextricably tied to growing our economy.
United American Nurses President Ann Converso, who also attended the signings, said:
For nurses, union representation is critically important in allowing us to effectively advocate for our patients and give the quality of care our patients deserve. It was clear to me from my meeting with the president and vice president that they also understand the importance and value of unions for nurses and all workers as we pull together to try to jumpstart our middle class.
Biden announced that his chief economic adviser Jared Bernstein will serve as executive director of the task force. Bernstein, a 16-year veteran of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), most recently served as director of EPI’s living standards program.
This is the second consecutive day that Obama has shown his support for workers. Yesterday, he signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which strengthens laws to ensure equal pay for equal work.
4 Comments
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I said just after the November election, that the best course for President Obama in advancing policies and actions would be to engage in a 180 degree reversal from Cheney/bush. So far, so good!
Looks like once again, American working families will be allowed to make a living in America, something Bush did not want.
Glad to see President Obama reverse all of Bush’s policies and orders.
Now it is time for the UAW to reverse all of it’s take aways and give back all the money they owe the retirees for the GM off contract year Concessions.
FINALLY - a president that talks about the middle class, and a president who has bold ideas to put our economy back on track. Vice-Presdient Biden is an excellent choice to head this new Task Force on Middle Class Working Families. Both he and President Obama understand the struggles of the working class, and they understand the importance of growing an economy from the ground up.
Sadly, yet very predictably, you will never hear a Republican talk about strengthening the middle class, advocating for fair wages, leveling the playing field or speaking out for unions. This will never happen. The Republican’s idea of economic success is to eliminate all competition, while encoraging businesses to make as much profits as possible while keeping wages low, eliminating benefits and not reinvesting in their own companies. What greed, a word that has become synonymous with the Republican Party. They do not understand the Middle Class, nor do they really care whether the vast majority of Americans survive at all. Now, fortunately, we have a president who understands what struggling Americans are going through, and understands the urgency of what is happeing. He is not going to waste time, and finally, I believe once again that things can get better. This is indeed a time of hope.
I wish President Obama much success in his administration, and I hope he continues to listen to the American people and what they want and need. I somehow believe he will do just that.