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September 2002
Sides with drug companies against seniors
Bush appointee Solicitor General Theodore Olson filed a brief in late
September with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the drug companies'
suit to outlaw Maine's prescription drug program. The Maine Rx Program,
passed in 2000, allows the state to bargain with drug companies on behalf
of its senior citizens to lower their prescription drug costs through
bulk purchases. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
(PhRMA), the industry's lobbyist, filed suit to nullify the law, claiming
it violated federal Medicare statutes. The Bush administration is pushing
a federal prescription drug plan that would privatize prescription drug
benefits and force seniors to pay all costs between $3450 and $5300 out
of their own pockets. It also allows insurance companies and HMOs to decide
whether to offer drug coverage in a given area, what drugs to cover, and
how much beneficiaries would have to pay. Congressional Democrats and
senior advocacy groups back a plan that provides prescription drug benefits
under Medicare, covers the drugs seniors need and controls the costs of
premiums and co-pays.
August
2002
Reneges on steel tariffs
The Bush administration in August excluded 178 imported steel products
from high tariffs imposed this year, threatening the goal of saving the
nation's steel industry. Many of the exclusions are for products American
steelworkers make every day. Since the steel crisis began in 1998, more
than 50,000 steelworkers have lost their jobs and 35 companies have declared
bankruptcy. The tariffs, adopted last March, gave a ray of hope that there
might be an opportunity for the American steel industry to consolidate
and assure our country will have a steel industry. "The administration
cannot give with one hand, while taking it away with another. It leads
to a steel trade policy of confusion that won't result in fulfilling a
national security need for a healthy, globally competitive American steel
industry," said Steelworkers President Leo Gerard.
Will block funds to monitor health
of World Trade Center rescue and recovery workers and money for firefighters
President Bush said Aug. 13 he will not release the $5.1 billion Congress
approved for supplemental homeland security programs. Those funds include
$90 million to monitor the health of workers who cleaned up the rubble
at Ground Zero, as well as $150 million for equipment and training grants
requested by some of the nation's 18,000 fire departments and $100 million
to improve the communications systems for firefighters, police officers
and other emergency personnel. Bush's action prompted the Fire Fighters
to launch a campaign to lobby Congress to include the money in the spending
bills for the federal fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. IAFF President Harold
Schaitberger also said he planned to write a letter of protest to Bush.
Despite some reports, Schaitberger said the Fire Fighters will not boycott
an Oct. 6 ceremony in Washington, D.C., where 343 firefighters who died
responding to the Sept. 11 attacks will be honored along with 100 other
firefighters who also died in the past year.Included in the $5.1 billion
homeland security spending measure is money to improve the communications
systems of firefighters, police officers and other emergency personnel.
The Sept. 11 rescue efforts were hindered by communications problems when
the various agencies' radios and other devices could not communicate with
one another. Other items that Bush's veto will kill include funds to increase
and improve inspections of cargo containers at the nation's ports, enhance
the FBI's counterterrorism technology and strengthen security around the
nation's food and water supply.
Considers troops to keep ports open in West Coast docks
lockout or strike
The Bush administration admitted it is considering using federal troops
to help West Coast port management keep the ports open if workers are
locked out of their jobs or if they strike. The International Longshore
and Warehouse Union, which represents some 16,000 workers, and the Pacific
Maritime Association are in contract talks. But the Bush administration
has assembled a task force to explore ways for the federal government
to intervene, including changing labor laws to remove the dockworkers
from National Labor Relations Act jurisdiction and make them subject to
the more restrictive Railway Labor Act. The Bush administration's threatened
intervention has hindered bargaining and taken away the maritime association's
incentive to negotiate, the union said. "We will never get to productive
bargaining until the Bush administration gets out of business," ILWU
President James Spinosa said.
July 2002
Nominated coporate-friendly, anti-worker Texas
judge to federal bench
President Bush nominated Priscilla Owen, a Texas Supreme Court justice,
to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In seven years on
the Texas court, Owen has issued a series of decisions and dissents that
are hostile to the interests of working men and women, especially in workers'
compensation cases and other workers' rights cases. A report by Texans
for Public Justice also cites Owen's anti-consumer decisions and dissents
along with her opposition to reproductive and women's rights. Many legal
observers say Owen's record is outside the mainstream, even by conservative
Texas Supreme Court standards, and she is considered a conservative judicial
activist who frequently ignores the plain language of the law in her decisions.
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on her nomination this fall.
Seeks to strip civil service and collective bargaining rights from
federal workers in proposed Homeland Security Department
President Bush's proposal for a homeland security department would strip
some 170,000 federal workers of their civil service and collective bargaining
rights. The administration proposal would combine 150 existing agencies,
departments and offices into one mega-department. The House approved the
administration's plan, including stripping workers of their rights, July
26. A Senate version, approved by the Governmental Affairs Committee,
would maintain the workers' rights and the Bush administration has threatened
to veto that bill. Since taking office, Bush has stripped several hundred
Justice Department workersof collective bargaining and threatened the
rights of air traffic controllers.
June 2002
Opens the door to privatization of the nation's air traffic control
system
President Bush signed an executive order June 4 that strips the nation's
air traffic control system of its designation as an "inherently governmental"
operation. In effect, that opens the door to privatizing the system. Under
the Federal Aviation Administration, about 15,000 controllers at airports
and air traffic control centers throughout the nation control flights
carrying about a million passengers a day. On Sept. 11, FAA controllers
safely landed some 5,000 planes within two hours after all flights were
ordered grounded. Private for-profit companies, which operate air traffic
control systems in Canada and Australia, are in financial trouble and
many aviation experts fear such problems could compromise the safety of
the traveling public.
White House refuses to say if federal workers transferred
to new Homeland Security Department will be able to maintain their collective
bargaining rights
A White House spokesman refused to say June 12 if federal workers who
would be transferred to President Bush's proposed Homeland Security Department
would be allowed to maintain their union representation rights. About
half of the 170,000 workers in the existing agencies and offices slated
for consolidation into the new department are union members. Bush's proposal
calls for "significant flexibility" in
hiring, firing, setting pay scales and other worker issues that are for
the most part now governed by collective bargaining agreements. Workers
and union leaders have expressed concern that Bush's past actions against
Justice Department workers and a recent executive order concerning air
traffic controllers against unionized federal workers indicate the Bush
administration may attempt to strip the workers of their union rights.
May 2002
Pursued back settlements for poultry
workers
The Bush administration's Labor Department reached a $10 million settlement
with Perdue Farms May 9 that will give some 25,000 former and current
workers back pay for the time the workers spent "off-the-clock"
putting on and taking off required safety equipment. It is estimated the
settlement will mean about $500 per year per worker. The Labor Department
also filed suit the same day against Tyson Foods over the same issue.
The fight to pay workers for all their hours on the job began with a Food
and Commercial Workers initiative in 1998 that was supported by a number
of groups such as the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice
and a number of members of congress. The Clinton administration began
the government's enforcement effort in the matter.
Ignores civil rights commission vote; appoints staunch conservative
to panel
After the U.S. Civil Rights Commission voted in December not to seat Bush
administration appointee Peter N. Kirsanow for a disputed seat on the
panel, the Bush administration took the issue to court. Kirsanow is known
for his arch-conservative views and disagreements with the civil rights
community. The Bush administration's action came shortly after the Civil
Rights Commission issued a report that was highly critical of voting irregularities
in Florida during the 2000 presidential election and cited discrimination
against minority voters in Florida. The administration claimed the term
of commission member Victoria Wilson expired in December, when the term
of the commission member she was appointed to replace would have expired,
and that a vacancy existed. However the Civil Rights Commission contended
Wilson was entitled to a full, six-year term and there was no vacancy.
In February, a U.S. District Court judge ruled in favor of Wilson and
the Commission, but the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned that decision
May 9.
Dec-Oct
April-Jan
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