Fighting for Our Union Lives

In the nation's capital and a growing number of states, anti-worker forces have launched new assaults — with public-sector employees a prime target.

By The Public Employee Staff

The second George W. Bush administration promises to be even harder than the first on unions and working families, especially on public employees. And the battlefield has expanded: from the White House and Congress to several states that have newly elected Republican governors.

Vital programs are under siege. In Washington, the attack is on Medicaid, Social Security and social-service portions of the federal budget — where big savings are needed to make up for Bush's tax cuts for the rich. In Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Oklahoma, the assault is on collective bargaining rights. In California, it's on public employee pensions.

The Bush administration is also waging a crusade against federal workers in the civil service system, imperiling some 2,600 AFSCME members employed by such agencies as the Justice Department and Federal Aviation Administration.

The attackers' broader purposes are chilling: gut the labor movement; dismantle the public sector; eliminate public employee pensions; perpetuate a right-wing, anti-worker majority for decades to come; and, in the words of New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, "turn the clock back to 1932" by erasing the worker protections established by the New Deal.

Make no mistake: These threats are not remote. They are as real as your present job and your retirement security. Today they're in Indiana and California, and in the halls of Congress; tomorrow they could be on your doorstep.