Bush Steps Up His War on Workers

As if the recent string of one-sided congressional victories for Corporate America wasn't enough, the Financial Times today reports that the Bush administration "aims to toughen its regulation of organized labor, in what critics see as the latest in a series of pro-business policies sweeping Washington." Specifically, political hacks at the Department of Labor "plan greater scrutiny of spending and hiring practices, and continue to increase sharply the number of financial audits of individual unions."

Despite his high-profile photo-ops and rhetoric, its pretty clear George W. Bush hates unions, and hates working people. That's not surprising, considering he never did a real day's work in his life. For Bush, growing up a wealthy blueblood elitist surely meant looking down on average blue collar workers with disdain.

But even so, today's story highlights the wild-eyed ferocity with which he has persecuted the labor movement. For instance, right-wing appointees to the National Labor Relations Board announced that they're taking aim at card-check recognition: the fairest and fastest process for workers to demonstrate they want a union. He dissolved the labor-management partnership councils – a key measure to give workers more input in federal contracting. He repealed workplace ergonomic standards that were designed to prevent worker on-the-job injuries. And the administration actually intervened to block a California law that said employers couldn't use taxpayer money to run anti-union campaigns in the workplace.

This, of course, says nothing about Bush's refusal to support a serious increase in the minimum wage, his unending support for corporate-written free trade deals that sell out American jobs, his hearty endorsement of outsourcing, and his desire to allow companies to unilaterally change their pension system to screw workers. Nor does it say anything about how his administration has given secret sweetheart deals to Wal-Mart, essentially giving the most anti-union company on the globe a free hand to continue its abusive union busting practices.

Workers in this country are clearly under assault, as conservatives really believe they can put the labor movement to death. This war will take everything the labor movement can muster in order to survive – and it is essential for progressives to see this as a seminal battle in modern politics. The labor movement is the backbone of economic progressivism, and has been at the heart of critical social change in this country. American history without a vibrant labor movement would have left us with a country that allows slave wages, sweatshops, and disallows things like the weekend (after all, it was unions who helped pass laws mandating a 40 hour work week). That history must continue.