Gore On The Issues

Three AFSCME members ask the Vice President some tough questions on issues that matter to all working Americans.

Last fall, AFSCME’s International Executive Board endorsed Vice Pres. Al Gore in his bid for the presidency; the following day, the AFL-CIO did the same.

Hearing from a candidate in his own words can help members make up their minds before they cast their ballots.

So three AFSCME rank-and-filers sat down with the Vice President in Los Angeles in November. They were: Kimberly Kaylor, a clerk typist from Albany, N.Y., and member of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)/AFSCME Local 1000; Jacqueline Bain, a corrections officer and member of AFSCME Local 1733, Memphis, Tenn.; and Michael Zackos, a psychiatric nurse and member of United Nurses Associations of California/National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, Local 1199.

That conversation is presented here.

Zackos: Mr. Vice President, some AFSCME members are still undecided as to whom they will support for the presidency. How do you stand out compared to the other candidates?

Gore: I feel very strongly that my record shows my commitment to working families, to organized labor, and to the kinds of policy changes that are good for working people.

I think it’s significant to point out that my record in support of organized labor and the issues important to working families has been in a Southern state that is not heavily organized, whereas New Jersey [home state of the primary challenger for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Bill Bradley] is a heavily unionized state.

When I tell you my record is better on issues important to working families than Senator Bradley’s, please take that into account. I had a higher degree of difficulty. But it wasn’t hard for me. I was voting my heart. I was voting what I thought was right.

A senator fights for one state. A congressman fights for one district. A president is supposed to fight for all the people, especially the ones that don’t have a lot of wealth and power: working people. I’ve done that all my career. And I want to fight for you.

Bain: Many political leaders advocate the privatization of public services, such as trash pick-up, mail delivery, social services assistance, even prisons. George W. Bush, by the way, governs the state that leads the way in the number of private prisons. What are your thoughts on privatization?

Gore: I’m not a big fan of this wholesale privatization movement. I think that it should meet a tough test. It should be looked at on a case-by-case basis. If you’re going to end up with more expenses paid out to some private contractor than you’re paying now for the government service, then why would you do it?

Bain: What are your thoughts on allowing charitable organizations, such as Goodwill Industries, to offer social services that have historically been administered by government and public service employees?

Gore: I think that that has to meet a careful test. First, I have advocated that in select areas, we ought to try to take advantage of some partnerships that can be built between public organizations and governmental organizations on the one hand, and faith-based organizations on the other, but only when certain tests are met. It should be limited to three or four services where what you’re trying to change is the inner motivation of the person, such as drug abuse recovery, homelessness and welfare-to-work.

Second, they should not be allowed to use any public money for pushing a particular religious viewpoint.

Third, there has to always be a secular alternative available that’s at least of comparable quality.

If all those conditions are met in limited circumstances, I think that they can do some good.

Kaylor: Caring for children is a major concern for all parents, but especially for single parents, many of whom are unable to afford private insurance. How would you work to insure these children?

Gore: I’ve put out a proposal in my campaign that focuses on this particular problem. It would provide full access to affordable health care for every child in America before the end of the next four-year presidential term.

It would also provide health care for the parents of those children if the family income is under 250 percent of the poverty rate.

After focusing on all children, I would give a 25 percent tax credit for small business owners and operators to insure their employees. These employers have a third of the workforce, but they have half of the uninsured workforce. Individuals who are not getting insurance in the workplace also ought to get a tax credit, to make it easier for them to purchase health insurance.

I would make the Patients Bill of Rights the law of the land, so that health care decisions are made by doctors and medical professionals, not by accountants and HMO bureaucrats.

But I would start with this focus: insuring every child in America with high quality, affordable health insurance. I would dedicate 15 to 16 percent of the budget surplus to fixing Medicare.

My Web site on the Internet, incidentally, is AlGore2000.com, if anybody wants to look up the details.

Bain: Social Security and Medicare will continue to be hot button issues. What role, if any, do you think private investment and private industry should play in these two vital government programs?

Gore: I’m not for the privatization of any part of Social Security and Medicare. They’re probably the two most valuable programs that we’ve ever enacted.

Fifty percent of the seniors in America had no health insurance when Medicare was enacted, and now 95 percent have it. Before Social Security was enacted, there were commonly poor houses where seniors were left to languish if they didn’t have family capable of taking them in. So, we ought to appreciate how important these programs are.

The Republicans have, over the years, tried various schemes for privatizing part of these programs. Senator Bradley is proposing privatization of Medicaid, a cancellation of Medicaid, and giving those that get Medicaid vouchers that they’re supposed to take into the private marketplace and purchase insurance. But he’s capping the voucher at a level that’s way below what’s necessary to buy the care comparable to what Medicaid provides now.

Another area where I disagree with Senator Bradley ... he voted to support a measure that would have raised the retirement age for both Social Security and Medicare from 65 to 70.

Now I understand that with increasing life spans, there are people who believe that that should lead to increases in the retirement age up to 70. But what they miss is that a lot of jobs are still real hard — a waitress, a steelworker, some of the state and local government jobs have a lot of wear and tear. You’re on your feet all day. And when you get to be 65 years old — I don’t care what your life expectancy is — you’re ready to retire!

Bain: Yes, you are!

Kaylor: Many states still prohibit collective bargaining for public employees. As president, would you use your power of office to enact federal laws to guarantee and strengthen collective bargaining for all public employees?

Gore: I strongly favor the right of collective bargaining and the right to organize. And I’d like to see it extended throughout our land.

Zackos: A follow-up question to that ... AFSCME is, as you know, working on an unprecedented commitment to organizing. When you came to our convention in Hawaii last year, you spoke of your support of the freedom of workers to have a union. What kind of support could unions expect from you?

Gore: I think we’ve got to deal with the strike-breaker problem, where they bring in people to fill the jobs of those who are exercising their rights to collective bargaining. I think that’s wrong.

I strongly favor significant increases in the National Labor Relations Board budget, because they’re so overworked and the Republican members of the panel are so partisan, that what you get are interminable delays in trying to get a fair resolution of the cases.

If somebody exercises their rights under the labor law, and a majority votes to organize, well, that ought to be it. But instead, years pass by. The ones who push for it are fired, replaced or pressured out in some way. They finally get recognized, and then the company or the employer will refuse to bargain in good faith. And it starts all over again. Well, that’s wrong. I strongly favor beefing up the NLRB, both the budget and the staff.

One of the promising developments is voluntary card check recognition. That avoids the pain and delay and wear and tear of the election process as it has been played out. And I’d like to see that used a lot more often.

Bain: Even though public employees and union members, in general, receive far more than the minimum wage, we care deeply about this issue. What is your stand on minimum wage?

Gore: I’m for increasing it $1 an hour right now. We’ve got an all-time record strong economy. Twenty million new jobs. Higher standards of living.

But why is the gap between rich and poor as bad as it is? It’s because the people who have the new skills — in the high technology areas — are getting the biggest increases. What about the ones at the bottom of the ladder? In some ways, it can become harder for the people at the bottom. So the argument for raising the minimum wage now is stronger than it’s been in a long time.

I believe in continuing our strong economic growth. I’ve been part of this movement to straighten out our economy, have a balanced budget and lower interest rates, but invest in the future at the same time. I’m for continuing the policies, by and large, that have undergirded this strong economic expansion.

But I want to fight for the people who are not sharing in it. I want to be a president who will fight for the ones that have either been left behind, or feel like that it hasn’t really made that much of a difference for them.

Kaylor: The Family and Medical Leave Act was the first piece of legislation signed into law by the Clinton/Gore Administration. It seems to be a success. Speaking as a parent, though, I think that employers should make it easier for parents to go out to parent/teacher conferences. How vigorously would you pursue expanding the law?

Gore: Very vigorously. I was one of the original co-sponsors of that legislation. Sen. Chris Dodd was the one that carried the ball as the main sponsor, but I was one of his blocking backs.

Let me tell you why I got involved in it. A little over 10 years ago, Tipper and I had a child who was seriously injured, and we went into the hospital to stay with him. It was a hard time for us. But nothing compared to what it was like for some of the parents of other children who were in the same critical care unit.

One couple, in particular, had a real hard time. Their son was in the hospital for several operations. They both took off from their jobs to be with him. Both of them were fired. They subsequently divorced because of the pressure.

It just seemed to me to be so wrong for a parent to be put in a situation where they had to make a choice between doing what was obviously the right thing for a child in a stressful situation and meeting their responsibilities at work.

We can’t treat parenting as an afterthought. We’ve somehow gotten into the situation where people are regarded mainly as workers, and have to fill in time, catch-as-catch-can, to be parents. That’s no good. We’ve got to make it easier for parents to balance work and family.

I was an original co-sponsor of the FMLA because of that strong feeling. We passed it. It was vetoed by President Bush twice. I learned a lesson from that — that if you can’t beat the Administration, you’d better be the Administration. We became the Administration, and we pushed that thing through. It’s never been a moment that I was prouder of than seeing that pass.

Bain: Progress has been made in the area of pay equity. But for working women, the issue will continue to be a priority until there is total parity. What would a Gore Administration do to change things?

Gore: I’m for an equal day’s pay for an equal day’s work. It’s not only good for women. It’s good for our country.

We’ve got legislation on the books now, but it doesn’t have much teeth in the enforcement. I’m for toughening the penalties on it. And I’m for legislation to move much further to really have meaningful pay equity.

I’ll tell you a quick story. My mother was born a poor girl in West Tennessee. She just celebrated her 87th birthday. She worked her way through college. She took her blind sister, my Aunt Thelma, to college with her and read lessons and took notes for both of them. She got a room at the YWCA, and she worked as a waitress in an all-night coffee shop for 25-cent tips. She became one of the first women in history to graduate from Vanderbilt Law School.

When my sister and I were growing up, there was never any doubt in our minds that women and men were equal. I see all around me, throughout this country, talented women who are doing as good or better a job as men and who are getting paid less. How long are we going to put up with that?

I’ve got three daughters. I’ve learned from Tipper. Most men that I talk to, if they’re married, would like their wives to have pay equity. They would like to live in a country that recognizes the equality of talent. We ought to enforce that law. We ought to have more protections to make sure that we have equal pay — pay equity — for an equal day’s work.

I hope that the members of AFSCME understand where I’m coming from. I want to fight for you. I need your help. Your leadership has been extremely close to me, valuable in the sense that we’ve worked together on a lot of things.

If you agree to help, together with your leadership, there’s no doubt that AFSCME can make the critical difference. I hope you’ll decide to do that, because I really want to fight for you as president.

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