Washington Watch
Activists learn that Americans are still getting a raw deal from congressional leaders.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
A budget deal that takes from the poor and gives to the rich.
A confirmation process that forces the President to give up a pro-labor executive order to get his choice for Secretary of Labor.
A Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who tells his political action committee that the goal of labor is to get a liberal Democratic Congress "to raise taxes to hire more bureaucrats, to get more union dues."
It all adds up to congressional leadership that continues to be hostile to labor and working Americans.
As Vice Pres. Al Gore told the annual AFSCME Legislative Conference in May: "The opposition wants nothing less than to turn back the hands of time in respect to workplace issues."
HERMAN CONFIRMED. News was breaking throughout Washington, D.C., as more than 300 AFSCME activists gathered in the capital to participate in the annual Legislative Conference. The schedule of speakers included such national leaders as Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Rep. David Bonior (D-Mich.), and Sen. James Jeffords (R-Vt.), chairman of the Labor and Human Resources Committee.
Secretary of Labor Designate Alexis Herman missed the AFSCME conference because she was still awaiting confirmation — four months after the President nominated her for the post.
In exchange for their approval of Herman, congressional leaders demanded that the President abandon an executive order requiring federal contractors to use union labor. The President agreed and Herman was confirmed. Clinton announced that he would issue a memorandum in place of the executive order. Unlike an executive order, the memorandum will expire when Clinton leaves office.
BAD BUDGET. Working Americans paid an even higher price in the proposed 1998 federal budget negotiated between congressional leaders and the Clinton Administration.
The budget grants as much as $100 billion in tax breaks to wealthy Americans in the form of reductions in capital gains and estate taxes. At the same time, the budget kills over $60 billion in domestic spending, $115 billion in Medicare, and $15 billion in Medicaid, primarily in funds to urban hospitals. The jobs of AFSCME members who work in these hospitals could be put at risk.
Bad as the budget is, it could have been even worse.
Barring last-minute problems, AFSCME and the labor movement prevented a proposed change in the Consumer Price Index that could have devastated those who depend on wages and benefits tied to inflation. Another proposal to limit Medicaid payments to low-income and disabled Americans was also defeated.
The budget also repairs some of the damage done by last year’s welfare reform legislation by restoring some benefits to legal immigrants and the needy. In addition, it includes $2.5 billion for welfare-to-work programs.
AFSCME and the AFL-CIO condemned the budget as a giveaway to the rich.
Before the budget deal was announced, House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) had called on AFSCME to take a tough stand on budget concessions. Speaking to the Legislative Conference, Gephardt said: "When we consider bills to balance the budget, and other legislation, we’ve got to have a set of policies that help real people make it — not just the few at the top."
Gephardt has reserved judgment on the budget package until the legislative details are worked out.
ADMINISTRATION SUPPORT. Vice President Gore told the AFSCME conference that the Clinton Administration will work to pass legislation to move people from welfare to work without displacing current workers. He promised that these new workers would be assured at least the minimum wage.
"A worker is a worker is a worker," he said.
At the conference, the Vice President indicated that the administration would limit privatization of some state functions in Texas. Gov. George Bush Jr. (R) has proposed a plan that could eliminate as many as 10,000 state workers.
AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee warned conference participants that if the full Texas program is implemented, many other states would follow suit. Later, the White House said it will not allow the privatization of Medicaid and Food Stamp programs in Texas.
AFSCME Sec.-Treas. William Lucy called on conference participants to remain active in politics at the local, state and national levels. "There is no greater threat to the public sector than the agenda currently being considered by Congress," Lucy said.
