The Work We Do — And Must Do

By Gerald W. McEntee

The issue of Public Employee you hold in your hands gets published only once every four years. It's filled with two kinds of articles, one celebrating our members and the great work they do, the other on what we're terming Decision 2000 — the first general election of the 21st century.

If those articles seem to have little to do with each other, they are in fact closely related. Our members perform a remarkable range of jobs. We drive buses, pick up trash, care for the sick and elderly, patrol the prisons, guide airliners to safe landings and much more. We do all that proudly and well. But we rely on laws, regulations and policies that support us as dependably as we support the people we serve.

How do we ensure that we get such support? By electing candidates with proven pro-labor records, candidates who are there for working families when it counts. They stand up for the right to organize and for strong safety regulations in the workplace; they oppose privatization and right to work laws. If we want those candidates to be our supporters, we have to be theirs, by putting them into office so they can do the job that needs doing.

In the middle of this magazine, you'll find a pull-out Voters Guide for next month's election. Please … read it carefully. Take it with you when you go to your polling place. Your Union has worked hard to make this guide the best of its kind. Our political experts have dug deeply into the issues critical to working families and, on the basis of those issues, have judged candidates across the country. Give the guide your careful consideration, because a great deal is at stake on November 7. There has not been, in my two decades-plus at the head of this union, any election as important as the one we now face.

Here's why — Ronald Reagan's two terms brought economic devastation: double-digit unemployment, sky-high inflation, the most farm foreclosures since the Depression, millions of jobs lost. Our own members, year after year, were forced to take zeroes and reductions in their health care plans.

We changed all that. In 1992, we helped elect Bill Clinton and Al Gore, and look what it brought us and our nation: 21.6 million new jobs — more than the combined Reagan-Bush era produced; and a $211 billion budget surplus — versus a $290 billion deficit inherited from those Republican Presidents.

Now we have George W. Bush, pushing his "compassionate conservatism." In education, health care, the environment, etc., his record as Texas governor is abso-lutely appalling. In addition, Bush has been a supporter of privatization; his Texas has more private prisons than any other state, and they have spawned corruption and violence.

But the danger Bush and running mate Dick Cheney pose reaches far beyond Texas. They represent Big Business, the wealthy, the privileged. They want to build up tax breaks for the rich and hold down unions for working people; roll back civil rights and women's rights by packing the Supreme Court with arch-conservatives; clamp down on the right to organize.

If the contrast between those positions and Al Gore's and Joe Lieberman's were any clearer, it would be blinding. Gore cares deeply about working people and will fight for them. He has been committed to us and our rights throughout his career. He has helped the White House fend incessant attacks — some in Bush's Texas — on unions and their members. As a state senator, Lieberman was instrumental in passing the law that gave collective bargaining rights to state workers. He has consistently supported raising the minimum wage, stronger workplace occu-pational health and safety enforcement, and the freedom of workers to join unions.

Al Gore is the only person standing between George W. Bush and a green light to attack unions, toss big tax breaks to the rich and implement privatization nationwide. If Bush wins, we lose. Decision 2000 is as simple as that.

Sisters and Brothers, however much you've done so far in behalf of pro-labor candidates, there's still time and need to do more. This is a gospel we're preaching, and we need you to help spread it — all the way to the polling place. If you do, your union, your family and your country will thank you.

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