We're Pushing Back
The only way public employees and health care workers have ever won in the past -- or ever will win in the future -- is by standing together.
By Gerald W. McEntee
It's been said that AFSCME is the most diverse union in America. And for good reason. Our 1.3 million members include everyone from social workers in Puerto Rico to highway crews in Ohio to health care workers in California to corrections officers in Alaska.
But if you think the fact that there really is no "typical" AFSCME member means we have little in common with one another, guess again.
Because to be a member of this union is to recognize that whether our collars are blue or white, the only way public employees and health care workers have ever won in the past--or ever will win in the future--is by standing together. It's by recognizing that the only way any of us can get ahead is by making sure that none of us is left behind.
It's that commitment to each other that has given AFSCME the strength it's taken to win the good wages, quality benefits and better working conditions our members have earned.
And it's that same commitment that on November 5 will help determine the future of every AFSCME family in America.
It has been said that in a democracy, every election is the most important and, for public employees and health care workers, never has that been more true.
Unlike the past, when we could count on Congress to help protect our families after the election of even the most anti-worker presidents, if Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich and their right-wing conservative allies are successful, for the first time ever we will face extreme right-wing domination of both the White House and Capitol Hill.
For AFSCME families the price of that kind of defeat would be catastrophic.
Unlike the Republican Party of Dwight Eisenhower's--or even Richard Nixon's--day, today's GOP leadership has made it clear that there's little room in its "big tent" for moderates who believe government--and the women and men who work within it--can make a positive contribution toward solving the problems facing America today.
Instead, today's new Republican Party has fallen prey to the extremist politics of the conservative fringe: Gingrich, Dick Armey and other right-wing politicians with close ties to corporate funded "think tanks" that advocate not only massive privatization, but even the outright repeal of laws protecting collective bargaining rights for public employees and health care workers.
In a shameless effort to win the favor of these new GOP power brokers, most of the once pro-worker Republicans in Congress we could turn to have now turned their backs on our families.
What could we expect from this new Republican Party if it's successful in holding on to its majorities in Congress and electing Bob Dole this fall? Just look at what they've already tried to do.
Under the Dole/Gingrich Republican budget plan, a measure stopped in its tracks by President Clinton, the states would lose almost $140 billion in federal funds. In just one state, Wisconsin, the Dole/ Gingrich plan would mean $1.3 billion in Medicaid cuts alone!
Who'll be stuck with the tab for the Dole/Gingrich budget? It won't only be the Americans who depend on those services, it will be the AFSCME members who provide them: We'll be paying with our jobs.
But that's not going to happen.
In the four years since he was first elected, Bill Clinton has faced some of the toughest challenges any president has ever been up against. It's no secret that sometimes we've disagreed. But in the time he's been in the White House, Bill Clinton has demonstrated a commitment to America's working families that we haven't seen in many years.
Bill Clinton and progressives in Congress stood with us time and again, on Family and Medical Leave, on Medicare and Medicaid, on OSHA, on fair labor standards, on the Republican balanced budget amendment that could have cost the jobs of millions of public workers.
That's why on November 5, just as Bill Clinton's stood up for us, we have to stand up for him. And at the same time, we have to stand up for every pro-worker progressive running for a House or Senate seat. We have to take back the Congress for our jobs and families.
Since Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich won control of Capitol Hill in 1994, they've tried to push working people to the wall. On Election Day, AFSCME families are going to start pushing back.
