Principles Endure Beyond Elections

There is only one thing certain about this years elections in the United States. Union members and working people will need to continue to keep fighting for a society that rewards work, gives everyone the opportunity to prosper, and seeks social justice.

As we went to press with this issue, the elections had not yet taken placetoo soon to talk about the results. But many of you will get this issue on or after Election Daytoo late for a last-minute pep talk.

Important as these midterm elections areand I have been talking about them all yearwhat is equally vital is that the labor movement not slacken its fight to bring decency, honor, fairness and plain common sense back into public policy. Those qualities have been AWOL for too long, and no single election is going to bring them back.

We have our work cut out for us. President George W. Bush thinks its okay to send the sons and daughters of working families off to fight a war, but working people cant be trusted to have union representation in any new federal agency charged with protecting the United States homeland. You can fight to defend rights, but dont try to exercise them yourself.

In this issues cover story, we talk about the superb efforts of our members who have helped bring the Pentagon back so soon after the attack. But even there, some of the electrical work on the Pentagon restoration was let out to nonunion contractors. They couldnt bear to let this accomplishment be only a showcase of union talent.

As we go to press, its business as usual and thats what has hurt the United States and Canada immeasurably. The powers that be are trying to get our nations to survive on finance, technology, government and the low-wage service sector. Whats missing is the industrial base that has been systematically undercut, ravaged, and traded away for some two decades now.

Dont think we need an industrial base here in North America? Lets look at a statement President Bush made when he ordered the opening of the West Coast ports to return locked-out Longshore workers to the docksanother assault on good blue-collar jobs. The Prez noted that we needed the ports open so that we could get badly needed components for our militarys missiles from Japan. So weve even traded away our defense manufacturing capability to the other side of the Pacific. And Bush thinks union rights are a threat to homeland security?

The madness has got to stop. Our foreign trade has been structured to give the multinational corporations everything they want. Wall Street and Wal-Mart both want trade policy the way it is. One could just see the Wal-Mart and K-Mart executives shaking in their boots when the ports were shut because it cut off their supply of cheap junk from China and other countries with enlightened labor laws. Global corporations scour the world for labor markets they can exploit. This is the crowd that questions the patriotism of anyone who dares raise their hand to ask a question about justice in the world.

Congress obliged these folks by passing NAFTA. And NAFTA, like the proposed Free Trade of the Americas Act and other trade pacts have cost some 2 million manufacturing jobs in the past four years. There is no pot at the end of the rainbow. There isnt even a rainbow. But there is great temporary gain for the few, and those few are the wealthiest and best connected politically.

Weve got to break the stranglehold that corporate interests have on many members of all political parties in both Canada and the United States. Elections matter. But the principles that drive our fight for justice endure. We need to work like never before for a fair and balanced economy with good jobs, before we lose it all.