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LABOR FACES BIG
CHALLENGES
IN YEAR AHEAD
By Edward Gorham
President
Maine AFL-CIO
As always at this time of year three things are in order.
First, and in many ways most important of all, it is a time to turn
for awhile away from work, issues and politics and to join with our
personal families and our “labor family” in recognizing the spirit of the
holidays and the New Year. A time, if you will, to give thanks for what we
have and to wish all brothers and sisters and their families health and
prosperity in the year ahead.
Secondly, it is a time to look back and examine what goals we have
met and what we have accomplished in the past year.
Finally, it is a time to contemplate the future year. A time, perhaps
not of just New Year “resolutions” but a time to, in broad terms, set some
goals and outline what we hope to accomplish during 2005.
The Last Year
The past year was one of mixed success for organized labor in
Maine.
With the help of an expanded Labor Caucus in the Maine Legislature
and a coalition of organizations and legislators supportive of the needs
of working families, we were able to make good progress in the area of
unemployment compensation – most significantly, finally achieving a
long-time goal of extending unemployment compensation to part time
workers. As you are probably aware, unemployment compensation, at a fair
and just level, helps not only the unemployed worker and his or her
family, but also helps the state economy since the money is immediately
spent on needed food, clothing and energy costs.
Bush Years Not Good
As you are aware, the “Bush Years” have not been good for workers.
They have been disastrous, not only for organized labor, but also for all
workers. Maine has lost tens of thousands of jobs and our percentage job
loss has consistently been either the highest among all the states or in
the top two or three.
For this reason it has been and continues to be of extreme importance
to do whatever we can to assist these laid off workers and their families.
Considerable Progress
We were able in 2003 to reform unemployment benefits in large
layoff situations to assure that voluntary layoff cannot be used as an
excuse to deny workers unemployment compensation. In addition, laid off
workers now have access to toll-free telephones at unemployment offices.
Finally, we were successful in a number of small but important law changes
in this area to speed up the handling of disputed claims and make more
information available to workers.
Maine State employees will benefit from the new assurance that the
Fair Labor Standards Act will apply to them and from new protections for
their interests in contracted state services.
Other Gains
During the year we also made significant gains in areas such as
providing public access to prevailing wage records, requiring union
representation on state licensing boards, improved access to personnel
files, better protection for whistleblowers, and better death benefits for
the spouses of workers killed on the job.
Working with supportive legislators and other organizations, such as
the Maine Council of Senior Citizens, we were able also to make
significant progress in dealing with health issues, prescription drug
information and prices, statewide health care, safety standards for
workers, and job protection.
Many of the pieces of legislation we work on in Augusta do not make
headlines, or appear at all in the news; however, they are highly
significant to specific groups of workers, such as injured workers, or to
specific segments of the population, such as low-income seniors. As
always, we win some and we lose some, but the effort is essential and must
continue in the year ahead.
Victory for Michaud
At the state level, we were successful in re-electing Second
District Congressman Mike Michaud – a crucial election for both organized
labor and for all the people of Maine, since the first and second time
someone is elected to Congress are usually the most heavily contested
elections. As a former paper mill worker, Mike knows the problems of
workers and working families intimately. We can count on Mike to continue
the fight for workers and for justice on a host of other issues.
As we have done in the past, labor helped turn out the vote for First
District Congressman Tom Allen and played a strong role in assuring he
will continue his outstanding pro-worker support in Washington for another
term.
Kerry Wins Maine
Labor also played a strong role in the referendum defeat of
the disastrous Palesky Tax Cap proposal, which would have cost Maine
workers thousands of jobs. We also stood strong in the support of John
Kerry which helped give him a presidential win in the State of Maine.
Nationally, we did not succeed in blocking most of the attacks of
Bush and the Bush Administration on unions, on workers and working
families and on the economy and environment. These attacks on everything
from Fair Labor Standards to health, on-the-job safety and fair pay are
clearly documented month by month by the national AFL-CIO and by many
other organizations. Also clearly documented are the tens of dozens of
lies and misleading statements that Bush, with the help of the Main Stream
Media, managed to sell to tens of millions of Americans like a snake oil
salesman turning a deadly potion into a healthful medicine by a stream of
continuous palaver.
The Year Ahead
But, finally, after thought and examination, we must put 2004
behind us and turn our minds and actions to the year ahead.
I cannot, in truth, say I see a silver lining anywhere in the dark
Bush cloud that hangs over the nation. However, it is not a time to walk
away from the struggle we face now, next year and for at least another
four years. We only need to look back far enough to the days of child
labor, 12 and 14-hour days, massive uncompensated workplace injury, entire
absence of pensions or unemployment benefits and putting organizers in
jail for any attempt to form or participate in a union to know two things.
One, in the long term organized labor has made great progress not only for
its members but also for all workers and working families. Two, no matter
what happens or who is elected to what offices, this struggle to better
the lives of workers and to meet new challenges will always continue.
Broad Battle Grounds
We have no silver ball to see exactly what lies ahead in 2005
but we do know some of the broad battlegrounds on which we will be
fighting. On the national level, these include: opposition to making the
Bush tax cuts for the rich permanent; opposition to privatizing Social
Security with the secret intent to destroy it entirely; opposition to
further weakening of health and safety work regulations; opposition to
continued erosion or elimination of overtime pay; opposition to packing
the Supreme Court with ultra conservative anti-worker judges; opposition
to cuts in Medicare and Medicaid; opposition to global trade pacts and tax
policies that help send American jobs overseas; opposition to continued
cuts in funding for education; opposition to continued privatization of
government work; and opposition to the innumerable other detrimental
measures we can expect to surface during a second Bush Administration.
Despite a Bush presidency and a GOP-controlled Congress, we must
support and fight for such issues as an increase in the minimum wage,
which has not been increased since 1997; support health care as a right
not a privilege for the wealthy; support fair tax policies; protect civil
rights and the right to organize and bargain collectively; support
measures to protect workers’ pensions from corporate attack; support
regulations that help keep workers from being killed or injured on the
job; support needed extensions of unemployment benefits to help tens of
thousands of laid off workers; and support many other measures that
strengthen and help working families.
There are many specific things we can and will do in the year ahead
but, above all, we must continue to do what labor has done for well over a
century – work in solidarity with our union brothers and sisters to help
better the lives of all workers and working families in Maine and the
Nation.
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