People Powered Politics vs. Big Business's Big Bucks

On April 26 at a black-tie dinner in Washington, DC, presidential candidate George W. Bush helped raise $21.3 million for the Republican Party. The audience of fundraisers included top executives from Blue Cross and Blue Shield, AT&T, United Parcel Service, US West Inc. and hundreds of others who traded their daytime boardroom button-downs for formal evening wear and the chance to contribute up to $250,000.

Earlier that month in Portland, Ore., state AFL-CIO President Tim Nesbitt and three other volunteers spent two hours one evening knocking on the doors of 125 union members who were not registered to vote - and many of them "signed up on the spot," Nesbitt says.

The result of those two events - about 100 new union voters vs. $21.3 million mostly corporate dollars - gets to the heart of what registering union members to vote is all about: people-powered politics vs. Big Business's big bucks.

Millions of union members and their families are not registered to vote. To make sure working families make their voices heard at the ballot box this fall, unions have been mobilizing to increase voter registration to make sure working families' votes counter corporate contributions on Election Day - Tuesday, November 7, 2000.

In Oregon, for example, well-funded, anti-worker extremists are working for passage of state initiatives patterned after California's Proposition 226, the so-called paycheck protection measure aimed at silencing working families, which voters rejected in 1998.

In 1998, 67,245 Oregon union members weren't registered to vote - and with 3,250 votes, working families could have regained control of the state house.

Like their anti-worker counterparts on the national level, backers of the Oregon initiatives have a well-funded war chest, says Nesbitt. But working families have some political currency of their own: "Votes - and they're not for sale."

As every maintenance of way worker surely knows, voting is a duty to yourself, your family and your union. Your paycheck, whether you get home at night, how far away from home you work, your safety at work, indeed, whether you work at all, are determined in large part by who you elect to Congress - or by the legislators your enemies elect if you don't register and vote.

Everyone knows the devastating effects that the so-called PEB 219 round of bargaining had on members of the BMWE. A presidential emergency board - number 219 - appointed by President Bush made terrible recommendations that were the basis for the Congressionally imposed agreement in 1991.

The PEB 219 recommendations gave the railroads nearly everything they asked for including greatly increased work districts which meant many BMWE members had to travel literally hundreds and even thousands of miles with little or no added compensation.

Federal agencies, whose members are appointed by the president, also have a direct influence on your life. These include the National Mediation Board (negotiations), the Surface Transportation Board (mergers), and the Federal Railroad Administration (safety).

People appointed to these agencies by the president we elect are supposed to be impartial and looking after the interests of everyone involved. But are they? The evidence against their "impartiality" is the fact that they and so many others leave their careers as "public servants" to take high paid industry jobs. The April 1998 BMWE JOURNAL gave a partial listing of 30 plus former federal agency staffers and congressmen who took high paid jobs with the railroads following their government service.

Without doubt, every BMWE member should know the power that legislators have on pensions. As the BMWE struggles to gain a fair, early retirement, in the end it is only Congress that can make changes to the Railroad Retirement Act and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act.

And, of course, it is not just the BMWE or rail labor that is hurt by anti-labor government legislators and agencies who have great power over the bread and butter issues for all working Americans. Until legislators stand for a prevailing wage law, a decent minimum wage, stronger workplace safety measures, job training, job protection, the right to organize and more, they cannot be allowed to claim they have a pro-worker agenda or expect to receive workers' support.

In short, that is why it is so important that we register to vote and then vote. That is why President Mac A. Fleming, in the March 1999 issue of the BMWE JOURNAL called for every member to be registered to vote by the year 2000. Although the BMWE did not reach its goal by January 1, 2000, it's still not too late.

Most states allow voter registration up to 30 days before the election. With the November 7, 2000 date nearing, we still have time to meet our goal. We must increase and enhance our effort to make certain that all BMWE members and their families are registered within the next few months.

Portions of this article were taken from Getting Members to the Ballot Box by Mike Hall in America@Work June 2000.

@ Quote Box =

"There's a direct relationship between the breadbox and the ballot box. And what the union fights for and wins at the bargaining table can be taken away in the legislative halls." - Walter Reuther, UAW

@ Box Heading = Absentee Ballot

Not registered because you're on the road on election day? No problem! Also no excuse.

Every state lets residents who aren't home on election day to vote in advance - usually by mail.

If you're registered, all it takes is a phone call or postcard to your election bureau and a 33-cent stamp to mail the ballot back.

But voting absentee is no different than voting in person. In most states, if you don't register, you can't vote.

@ Box Heading = LABOR DAY

September 4, 2000 is Labor Day holiday in the United States and Canada. It is a day honoring the men and women who built the labor movement through their struggle and sacrifice so that all working Americans and Canadians could enjoy dignity in the workplace and a standard of living unparalleled in the world.

Labor Day is a day to reflect so we don't lose sight of the achievements organized labor has won for all of us. Through its continuous and tireless efforts, we have: the 40-hour work week, paid vacations, paid holidays, wage increases, seniority rights, unemployment benefits, occupational health and safety laws, health and welfare benefits, child labor laws and minimum wage.

Protect yourself, your family and your union. Register and vote for pro-labor, pro-people candidates. There can be no free and democratic society where free and democratic unions do not exist.