Get in Gear for '04

Some of you have taken Secretary-Treasurer O'Connor and me to task for our criticism of President Bush. We accept that, and we make it clear that we hold the office of the presidency in the highest respect. The IBEW is a union of patriots, and you can see in this magazine how our members have answered the call to duty in the Middle East, some making the ultimate sacrifice.

We believe that it is our responsibility to point out the issues that affect us as a trade union and ask everyone in the IBEW to consider what is happening to working families as a whole under the watch of George W. Bush.

Our members see it up close in the workplace as well as in the headlines. We know all about the lack of work, the shuttered plants, the layoffs, the fight over health and pension benefits and the tough negotiations. And we read about how the only job growth in North America is in low-paying occupations. In California alone, industries that are hiring are paying 40 percent less than those that are shrinking. We hear about the Bush immigration plan not to help these vulnerable folks, but to exploit them further and pit them against native workers. We see that the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which takes up the slack of defaulted private pension plans, has reported that its deficit has soared to $11.2 billion in just a year.

Look at what's happened on an issue close to our hearts-overtime pay. The 40-hour workweek is one of the bedrock rights won by prior generations that made life better for every working person. The slogan that touts the labor movement as being the folks who brought you the weekend is no joke.

But in 2003, the Bush Administration mounted an all-out effort to "reform" the overtime rules, not through the democratic process, but through Labor Department regulations (see page 17). Three times this Congress-even with both houses controlled by Republicans-voted to deny funding to implement the regulations. The president's allies in Congress, however, struck language blocking the overtime regulations into the omnibus appropriations bill-one of those catch-all legislative monstrosities that Congress often has to pass to keep the government running. The president put out the word that he would veto any omnibus bill that threatened his precious overtime provision. Here we have the leader of the country willing to risk shutting down the government in this time of war and terror threats in order to stiff millions of workers out of overtime pay. Our allies had no choice.

It's not hard to see who's calling the tunes to which Bush dances. We read that the biggest Wall Street bankers are lining up in unprecedented numbers to support the Bush re-election machine to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. And they have the nerve to accuse us of playing the politics of class warfare?

Without a doubt, politics will play a big role in 2004, as we will have national elections in both the United States and Canada. We plan to provide more information on issues and candidates than ever before and mobilize our members to participate in the process to a greater degree than ever. It's our duty to speak up against the way our society is going and exercise our precious civil rights to change it.

Victory in politics is rarely certain and never permanent. The only hope working people have is to build a strong, vibrant, growing labor movement. There is no shortage of potential members in all of the industries we represent, people who need what unionization can give them, even if they are too scared or brainwashed to admit it. Unless we reach out to turn the unorganized into union brothers and sisters, we can only look forward to steady decline.

It promises to be a wild ride in 2004, but one that we must take together. Let's put it in gear.

  Presidents Message

January/February 2004 IBEW Journal