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Our opportunities to make a difference for workers and their families are still limited only by the depths of our imagination and the bounds of our energy.
Our trade union movement is making a huge difference for millions of workers and their
 families
the world over.
We must never forget our historic mission as trade unionists. Our mission is all about making a difference. That is what separates those of us in the labor movement
from the rest of the world . . . and it is also what drives and motivates us for the future.
Sisters and brothers, I would submit to you that our mission has never been more important than it is today.
Since I met with you last year in Oklahoma City, we have seen troubling signs emerge . . . troubling signs in the
form of public policies and pronouncements that have been decidedly anti-worker and anti-union.
We have seen unprecedented acts of corporate greed.
We have seen flagrant attempts to use the war on terrorism as an opportunity – and an excuse – to
implement an extremist agenda that divides rich from poor . . . that favors management over labor . . . and that sides with giant corporations over the needs of working families.
I think it’s time we remind President Bush and the leaders of Congress that the freedoms we are
defending just happen to include the right to organize . . . the right to be empowered through union membership . . . the right to bargain collectively . . . the right to have a voice in the workplace . . .
and the right to strike when necessary!
We must sound this call louder than ever. We will stand up and fight for the rights of workers
every place they are under attack . . . . because it’s the right thing to do! And at the end of the day, with your help, we will prevail!
Our commitment and our solidarity have never been more important. Why? Because quite simply we are confronted by a president, an administration, and a Republican leadership in
Congress that remain steadfastly loyal to turning back the clock on workers’ rights, and especially the rights of union workers.
They believe in doing favors for their buddies at corporate monstrosities like Enron and WorldCom, but they could care less about helping hard-working men and women who play by the
rules and gain a voice in the workplace through collective bargaining.
You want examples? Here’s a good one. Bush and Company want additional money – a 12
percent increase in an already strapped federal budget – to investigate what they call “union corruption.”
They want tp stack every federal court in the land . . . especially the very Supreme Court which
anointed and appointed George W. Bush president . . . with extremists who hold the same antiquated and callous views on democracy, equity, workers’ rights, and every other issue that matters.
Their goal is a world without unions . . . a world where the quest for equality merits nothing more
than a few nice words in an occasional speech. To them, it’s their way or the highway.
Well, they can have the highway. We’re taking it to streets! And our message is simple and profound.
We have no intention of turning back the clock and returning to the horrors of yesteryear. We will not go back!
But in standing up to those whose real dream is a world without unions, we have our work cut out for us.
We start with an economy that is struggling to emerge from recession . . . a wave of corporate
corruption as bad as any in history . . . and a plummeting stock market being hit harder than at any time since the early 1930s.
Unfortunately, it’s happening at a time when our nation has the misfortune to be led by two
clueless captives of corporate America . . . none other than George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
Earlier this week, George W. said he was “optimistic” about the American economy. The same
day he made that clueless pronouncement, the stock market hit a four-year low. Then the Census Bureau reported that household income fell by 2.2 percent last year, marking the first decline in
family income since 1991. The same report also noted that for the first time since 1993, the number of Americans living in poverty had also increased.
And how did “W” respond to this disastrous economic news? In typical fashion.
He blamed it the Clinton Administration.
Well, here’s the sad, sordid story of the Bush economic policy over the past two and a half years.
Under the Bush Administration, we have seen:
- A record number of job losses. This is the only administration to lose private sector jobs in 50 years!
- We have witnessed the weakest economic growth in 50 years.
- We have seen record losses in state pension funds.
- And, according to the mouthpiece of the Bush Adminstration – The Wall Street Journal –
the American economy has lost $4.5 trillion dollars in stock market valuations in the last two years. That translates into billions of dollars in losses in IRAs, 401k plans and other retirement
savings, and real hardships for individuals and families who are desperately trying to save for retirement, education and other needs.
In the now-famous words of James Carville, “It’s the economy, stupid!” And the fault lies at the
feet of George W. and his callous, anti-worker, anti-family policies.
Our economy is being driven down by the same corrupt business practices Bush and Cheney engaged in when they were back in the private sector.
George W. Bush was on the Board of Directors and Audit Committee of Harken Energy when that company created a sham transaction, lending money to a group of insiders so they could buy a
subsidiary. This allowed Harken to claim a profit and hide its losses from unwitting investors.
Just before the SEC forced Harken to restate its earnings, Bush sold his company stock,
pocketing $848,000 dollars. Days later, the stock price crashed. Then the SEC, headed by one of his dad’s cronies and whose general counsel was his own personal lawyer, did a whitewash.
Under Dick Cheney’s leadership, Halliburton engaged in sleazy accounting practices similar to
those that did in Enron and WorldCom. Then he dumped his Halliburton stock in August of 2000 to the tune of $35 million dollars . . . just before his company’s accounting scams were exposed
and the share price took a nose dive.
Bush’s whole career in the private sector was characterized by repeated failures that always
required a bailout from his father’s friends or from people who wanted to buy influence in the administrations of Ronald Reagan or Daddy Bush.
He became rich by putting his Harken energy gains into the Texas Rangers baseball team . . .
profiting from massive public subsidies provided by the taxpayers of Arlington, Texas . . . and then selling the team to a crony, Tom Hicks, whom he enriched as governor by privatizing University
of Texas assets and having Hicks manage them.
When the baseball team was sold, Bush was entitled to less than 2 percent of proceeds, but the
other owners decided to bestow a little kindness on the man who was now governor of Texas. They gave him 12 percent . . . so Bush made $12 million dollars.
Is this a great country or what?
These guys govern by the same principle . . . using public resources for the private gain of an elite few through tax cuts, lax regulation, sweetheart deals, union-busting, you name it.
When required to confront real problems affecting most Americans . . . like the slumping
economy and high unemployment . . . they’re simply clueless. They’re just as baffled about how to stop the market free-fall. Bush gives a speech designed to reassure Wall Street and stock
prices plummet with each word that leaves his mouth!
Bush and Cheney also have no conscience about using the war on terrorism, and now Iraq, to
inflict their narrow agenda on a public that would never accept it under other circumstances. They are showing their true, anti-worker, anti-union colors by demanding that employees of the new
Homeland Security Department be denied their civil service and collective bargaining rights.
They say they must have more flexibility. Look, flexibility has nothing to do with it – they
despise the union movement and will stop at nothing to try and take away the hard-won rights of workers and their unions.
They want a world without unions. Well guess what? They can forget it! We’re going to turn their dream into a nightmare!
That’s why making a difference in the political action arena has never been more important than it is today.
Just one Supreme Court Justice . . . a few hundred votes here, there or in Florida . . . the decision
of a single senator . . . . That’s the difference between protecting our jobs and losing them . . . between raising our standard of living and seeing it decline . . . between preserving the right to
bargain collectively and having it ripped to shreds . . . between strengthening Social Security and privatizing it . . . between throwing trillions of dollars at the wealthiest Americans and investing it
in our children’s future.
All of this means only one thing: We’ve got to work longer and harder than ever.
We’ve got to kick out the politicians whose view of national unity is limited to waving flags and
singing “God Bless America” but who would never, God forbid, lift a finger to actually do anything to help working families.
The immediate weeks ahead will be crucial in our fight to turn the tide against those who want to turn back the clock.
I say that because five weeks from next Tuesday will be Election Day.
We have just five weeks left to register new voters.
Five weeks left to educate and mobilize our members.
Five weeks left to work like never before for what is clearly one of the most crucial mid-term elections in our history.
Just look at what is at stake this year.
Just one Senate seat makes the difference between Tom Daschle and Trent Lott as Senate majority leader. Just six House seats make the difference between Dick Gephardt and Denny
Hastert as speaker, and between Nancy Pelosi and Tom DeLay as majority leader.
Talk about the difference between night and day for working families.
As we look at the map and prepare for these crucial elections, it quickly becomes clear that the all
-important race for control of the U.S. Senate could very well come down to several crucial Senate races right here in District 6.
Think about this. Senate races in four of the five states that comprise District 6 represent some
of the most important battleground states in the race for control of the U.S. Senate. For example . . . .
“ In Arkansas, we have a chance to pick up a Senate seat in a race where State Attorney General
Mark Pryor is mounting a serious challenge to incumbent Republican Senator Tim Hutchinson. Their records and positions on issues important to workers are as different as night and day. One
statistic underscores this stark contrast and sums up the race for working famlies.
In six years in the Senate, Tim Hutchinson has voted on the side of working families just 11
percent of the time. Right now, the political analysts are calling this race a “toss-up” which means that our work in mobilizing our members and turning out the vote can be the deciding factor.
“ Another crucial race is in Missouri where Senator Jean Carnahan is being challenged by former
U.S. Representative Jim Talent. Once again, the choice for workers could not be more clear. Senator Carnahan has voted with working families 93 percent of the time.
During the year 2000, his last year in the House of Representatives, Talent’s working family
voting record was Zero ... a big goose egg. Time and time again Senator Carnahan has stood with working families, while her opponent – the not so talented Mr. Talent – has stood with the forces
of corporate greed and ideological extremism.
“ Another important race can be found in Oklahoma where former Governor David Walters is challenging incumbent Republican Senator James Inhofe.
Inhofe can be counted on to support the right wing, anti-workers forces of the Bush
Administration and the Republican Party. His voting record underscores his loyalties – he has voted with working families only 12 percent of the time according to the AFL-CIO.
Walters, on the other hand, has shown his commitment to workers. He was the highest profile
public official to oppose Oklahoma’s “right-to-work-for-less” ballot initiative.
“ Finally, there’s Texas . . . home of you know who. A year ago, virtually no one gave the
Democrats a chance of picking up a Senate seat in Texas. But when Texas Republican Senator Phil Gramm announced his retirement after compiling one of most anti-worker records in the
Senate, the door of opportunity opened.
Working families have the opportunity to take back this important seat by electing former Dallas
Mayor Ron Kirk in his Senate race against state Attorney General John Cornyn. Ron Kirk will be a strong supporter of CWA’s working families agenda while Cornyn can be counted on to come
down firmly on the side of corporate greed.
Consider this. Cornyn received so much money from Enron that he had to recuse his entire office – the entire Texas Attorney General’s office
– from the investigation into Enron’s corporate scams and wrongdoing.
The Texas Senate campaign is another of the “toss-up” races which will determine who controls
the Senate next year. A year ago, no one gave us a chance in Texas. Today, we have an enormous opportunity make a statement and send a message to George W. Bush. Now, it’s up to us.
From these examples, I think you can see why this year is so crucial. And the races here in District 6 will be among the most important and closely contested in the nation.
How well we do it . . . how hard we work . . . will determine whether everything we have won over the past 70 years will be in jeopardy.
That is what is at stake this year. And that is why we must give it our all.
Sisters and brothers, we have no choice. We must . . . I repeat, we must . . . keep up the fight and redouble our efforts.
If we don’t, the extreme right wing of the Republican Party could control all three branches of government. That’s no exaggeration . . . just a statement of fact.
We’re going to need all of our fighting spirit . . . all of our energy . . . and all of our passion for
our mission as trade unionists . . . in the five weeks between now and Election Day.
Above all, we’re going to need Solidarity . . . like never before.
But knowing you as I do, I have no worries. Because each and every one of you has faced tough
challenges before and came through with flying colors. And I know you’ll do it again.
I love a good fight. And we’re in for one in the five weeks between now and election day on November 5th.
I also love to win.
And that’s exactly what we’re going to do in this year’s mid-term elections. Then we’ll set our
sights on giving George W. something else in common with Daddy Bush – the distinction of being a one-term President!
Together . . . with a CWA family of more than 700,000 at our side . . . together, we have the opportunity to truly make a difference.
We have many miles to travel and much work before us.
Let’s get on with it! Thank you.
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