Gore Urges Equal Partnership
'Second lady' wows crowd.
Was that the next first lady speaking to the 2,200 capacity crowd at the Convention’s Equal Partners Breakfast? Evon Sutton of Philadelphia, who is a member of AFSCME’s Women’s Advisory Committee, thinks so. “She’s on her way to being first lady,” Sutton said with a smile.
The wife of the vice president, Tipper Gore certainly had a winning way with the enthusiastic crowd. And she indicated that she wouldn’t mind the designation. The term “second lady,” she said, “always made me feel a little bad when I heard it. Like maybe if I had just tried a little harder I could have done better,” she admitted to bursts of laughter.
Congratulating AFSCME for being “on the forefront for fighting for the rights and the needs of working women,” Gore inspired loud applause when she spoke of employees’ right to organize. “We [the Clinton-Gore administration] believe as you do, in the freedom of all workers to organize without employer interference. Period,” she said. “We also stand for the right of all workers to better their lives by joining a union. Period.”
Gore encouraged AFSCME women to become “equal partners” in the American economy. She also called on AFSCME to help pass additional increases in the minimum wage so that all Americans could share in the nation’s prosperity. She said the administration has worked for equal pay, opportunities for promotion, and working family programs. It has fought all forms of discrimination and violence against women.
Praising AFSCME for winning pay equity adjustments of more than a half a billion dollars at the bargaining table and in state legislatures, Gore said the current wage structures were established when women were primarily responsible for child rearing and men were the wage earners. Now, millions of women must do both.
Gore proudly noted the administration’s passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which allows working people to take time off to care for sick children, parents or spouses without fear of losing their jobs. Passing the law was important, she said “so that people don’t have to choose between their responsibilities to their families and their responsibilities to their workplace.” AFSCME took the lead in lobbying for passage of the FMLA.
After the speech, United Public Workers Local 646 member Lois Fukushima, who works in the Department of Education in Hawaii, said she was pleased with Gore’s emphasis on families and her strong support for FMLA policies. “I’m doing an adoption, and this will be helpful for me as a single working person.”
By Catherine Barnett Alexander
