Speakers, Delegates Identify Legislative Priorities
02.04.2008

Delegates to the UAW’s CAP Conference heard members of Congress, leading Washington journalists, and UAW coalition partners discuss issues facing working people in the upcoming election year.

Delegates gave a warm welcome to Sen. James Webb, D-Va., who said he was “the only statewide candidate from Virginia who has a union card, two Purple Hearts and three tattoos.”

He is also the only statewide candidate in the history of Virginia to walk a picket line, which he did in Danville in 2006. “When I did that I was getting some conflicting advice from my consultants,” said Webb. “And they were saying, ‘Are you sure this is the right political thing to do?’ And I said, ‘No I don’t know if it’s the right political thing to do, but I know it’s the right thing to do.’ ”

The senator and former Marine talked about the wrong direction the country has taken during seven years of the Bush administration, and likened today’s executive compensation to the robber barons of the early 20th century. Webb said the average American CEO makes 400 times what the average worker makes. “In Japan it is only 10 times the average worker, and in Germany, 11 times,” said Webb. “So there’s something in here that’s come apart, and we need leadership that’s going to fix it.”

Webb also addressed the unfair trade agreements negotiated by the Bush administration that has cost the country millions of jobs and depressed wages. "We need to make sure trade policies have something we haven’t had: provisions that protect the American workforce.”

Media sees middle-class decline: Newsweek contributing editor and columnist Eleanor Clift and Al Hunt, executive editor for Bloomberg News in Washington, shared their views about the media’s role in covering politics and issues.

For the first time in more than 30 years, Hunt said, the value of homes, investment accounts, and real wages are all declining at the same. “It’s the whole sense that your kids aren’t going to have a better life than you had,” said Hunt. “And that’s the American dream. And I think most people today worry or they think the American dream is not going to be realized.”

Fix trade to save jobs: Reflecting on Monday’s presentations, CAP delegate Ron Rush, president of Local 2370 in Franklin, Ky., said that America’s flawed trade policies are primary cause of the decline of middle class jobs.

“Korea gets to sell 700,000 vehicles here, versus our 7,000. There’s nothing fair about that,” said Rush. Members of his local union, he says, will work to elect people who will stop that trend. “We’re going to support the people who support us and our issues, and when we say ‘fair trade,’ we mean fair for working people.”

Jim Underwood, benefit representative at Local 440, Bedford, Ind., says a top priority for him is national health care.

“I’ve seen too many families whose children, once they are too old for our insurance, are left with no insurance,” said Underwood. “So it’s a real concern, not just for me, but the rest of the country."

Donna Birks is the financial secretary for Local 31 in Kansas City, Kan., where they make the award-winning Chevrolet Malibu. She says job security is No. 1 on her list and that means stopping the “job-killing” trade agreements.

Birks and the other delegates from her local will visit the Hill tomorrow to discuss their concerns about job security and trade agreements with Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo.

“Make your voices heard:” Wade Henderson president of the Leadership Council on Civil Rights, spoke to delegates on Monday afternoon. He thanked UAW members for their efforts to defeat a ballot proposal banning affirmative action in Michigan, and pledged support for the Employee Free Choice Act, which will protect the right to organize.

“The Employee Free Choice Act has to be a top civil rights as well as a labor objective,” said Henderson. “Labor rights are civil rights. We know that when workers – regardless of race or ethnicity - are members of the union they benefit overall by about 30 percent in wages. Union membership is the best protection for full participation in the economy.”

Henderson exhorted the activists to make their voices heard when they meet with their legislators on Tuesday. “It is important to use the undeniable clout that is in the DNA of this great union to let the men and women on Capitol Hill know working men and women all around the country are united for a fair and competent government,” said Henderson.

“And let them know the UAW is in the house!”