For Immediate Release
Friday, September 16, 2005
Statement by AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee on Presidential Address on Hurricane Katrina
After mishandling Hurricane Katrina before, during and after it decimated the Gulf Coast, President Bush laid out some initiatives that will provide real relief for hurricane victims.
Unfortunately, the right wing is determined to cynically exploit Hurricane Katrina to enact an anti-worker and anti-family agenda. First, they doled out no-bid contracts to profiteers. Then, they gutted the wages of the construction workers who will rebuild the Gulf Coast. Now they're cooking up ways to load Katrina relief legislation up with school vouchers, waivers of important labor protections and civil rights, a risky job training program and more tax cuts for the very rich.
Make no mistake. Turning the Gulf Coast into a playground for the right wing's ideological agenda is unconscionable. Katrina victims deserve better.
