Key Labor Leaders Address Delegates
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney gave a blistering recap of President Bush’s anti-worker and anti-union policies. “We’re fighting in Iraq, and we’re fighting against terrorism,” said Sweeney. “We are also fighting a trade war and the war on working families conducted by the Bush administration. And when it comes to the war on working families, George Bush fired the first shot. ”
William Lucy, President of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists described the Bush administration as providing “mean-spirited national leadership,” that has been responsible for the rollback of policies such as safety and health, education and training, ergonomic standards and many others, “that took years to achieve.”
Lucy said Bush administration's economic policies have resulted in a loss of 2.5 million manufacturing jobs. “While job loss is difficult for all, African-Americans have lost jobs at a greater rate than any other population group, followed closely by Latinos,” said Lucy. “We will not be a strong nation by selling hamburgers to each other. We need good manufacturing jobs.”
Convention delegates heard from three defenders of working families in the United States and Canada.
Gephardt, Layton Call for Political Action
Delegates heard from two stalwart political defenders of working families in the United Sates and Canada who gave rousing appeals to turn back the right wing advance in both countries.
Congressman Dick Gephardt, D-MO, challenged delegates to their put their hearts and souls into “the most important election of our lifetime.”
“More than 140,000 Machinists have lost their jobs in the last three-and-a-half years. Now, that’s a big number, but forget the number. Go down to the individual family in St. Louis or Cincinnati or Los Angeles or Seattle or New York or some little town in Ohio and look at what it means when a family loses their job,” Gephardt said. “This administration has declared war on labor unions as a matter of policy.”
Canada’s New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton led his party to recently win the largest number of seats in Canada’s House of Commons since 1998. “There has been no time in our history where the interests of the workers of the United States and the workers of Canada have been more in common, the challenges more urgent, the need for solidarity more evident than it is today,” said Layton. “We intend to build on that solidarity so that corporate interests can’t keep dividing workers and we can stand up for labor standards and labor rights worldwide.”
Barry Bluestone, economic expert and founding member of the Economic Policy Institute, described what would happen to American jobs if George Bush had four more years in the White House. “If current trends continue, by 2008 another three and a half million jobs will be lost,” he said.
