The greatest freedom we have in America is our right to vote. Along with solidarity, the greatest power workers' have is by exercising their right to vote. As was said before, BMWE members know, like it or not, if you work for a railroad, you have to be political. Your contract, your safety, and your pension depend on being political. By registering and voting in the upcoming elections, BMWE members are fighting to protect their rights in the workplace, safeguarding their retirement and increasing the power of the labor movement for all working families.

And that's why delegates to the convention of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (including the BMWE's Mac Fleming, Bill LaRue, Joel Myron, Don Griffin, J. D. Knight, Ernie Torske, Rich Lau, Henry Wise, Ken Deptuck, Jed Dodd) agreed July 20 to mobilize a permanent force of political activists who will continue working between national elections to "promote an agenda to create jobs, improve safety and strengthen job security for millions of America's transportation workers," said Transport Workers and TTD President Sonny Hall. Speaking to the delegates July 21, Vice President Al Gore said he will make workers' issues a key part of his agenda if he is elected president.

While Railroad Retirement has been the legislative issue highest on the BMWE agenda for the last two years, other issues important to transportation labor and to the working families who make up transportation labor were also considered this year and are outlined on pages 9 and 10 in this JOURNAL next to the Voting Record of your Congressmen in the 106th Congress.

Other issues that working families care deeply about - Medicare prescription drug benefits, Patients' Bill of Rights, OSHA ergonomics (repetitive strain and back injuries), NLRB funding, school construction funding and even so-called "right to work" - were considered on the House and/or Senate floors this year with almost all Democrats voting with working families and almost all Republicans voting with their big business constituency.

Prescription Drugs

As they raced toward a July 4 recess, congressional Republican leaders turned their backs on seniors who need help to buy prescription drugs. The House Ways and Means Committee approved a measure that relies on insurance companies instead of Medicare to provide prescription drug policies to seniors. The Republican bill, "offers seniors little hope of getting access to the essential but increasingly expensive drugs prescribed by their physicians," said AFL-CIO President Sweeney when the measure was introduced in April.

Hiding behind the House rules, Republican leaders blocked an attempt to vote on a bill that would add a guaranteed prescription drug benefit to Medicare for all seniors. Instead, on June 28 they approved (217-214) a plan (HR 4680) that would be administered primarily by private insurance companies that will set their own terms and limits on benefits, premiums, co-pays and deductibles.

"This bill does not provide prescription drug coverage for senior citizens. It provides political coverage for Republicans," said Representative Robert Wexler (D-FL). The GOP bill "benefits the companies who make the prescription drugs, not the seniors who need to take them," said President Clinton, who promised to veto the bill.

On June 22 in the Senate, Senators Robb (D-VA) and Graham (D-FL) offered an amendment to an appropriation bill (HR 4577) that would have provided prescription drugs to Medicare recipients. This bill failed by a vote of 44-53. This bill was similar to the Democratic plan being pushed in the House of Representatives.

On June 20 the AFL-CIO launched campaigns in 20 states to bring down the costs of medications working families need to stay healthy. The campaign was inspired by the passage of a law in Maine allowing the state to harness its bulk purchasing power to negotiate discounts for residents without shifting costs to taxpayers.

Patients' Bill of Rights

The Senate, in an almost party-line vote, lined up with the insurance industry and against quality, affordable health care and accountability for HMOs and rejected the Patients' Bill of Rights June 8. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) offered the health care legislation as an amendment to the Department of Defense appropriations bill. The proposed amendment was defeated 51-48, with four Republican lawmakers joining all 44 Democrats supporting the bill.

"The Senate Republican leadership has irresponsibly avoided key issues - including holding health plans accountable and making sure workers with private insurance are covered - while working families continue to be held hostage to their health plans by HMO bureaucrats," said President Sweeney. Kennedy's amendment was identical to the bipartisan House bill passed last year.

OSHA Ergonomics

More than 600,000 workers a year suffer serious injuries from ergonomic hazards on the job.

Yet the House of Representatives, with the vast majority of Republicans lining up with Big Business and against workers, voted June 8 to prohibit the Occupational Safety and Health Administration from issuing its long-awaited and desperately needed ergonomics standard. The 220-203 vote, with 14 GOP members voting right and 16 Democrats voting wrong, retained a provision in the overall Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations bill that bans OSHA from going forward with the new rule. The House approved the full bill (HR 4577) with the ban on June 15.

In the Senate, ignoring a threatened presidential veto and on a mostly party-line 57-41 vote, lawmakers approved an amendment to the fiscal 2001 Labor/Health and Human Services/Education spending bill that forbids OSHA from spending any funds on its proposed ergonomics standard.

The AFL-CIO opposes the appropriations bill, which cuts funds for OSHA, the National Labor Relations Board and skills-training programs and does not contain money to reduce school class size or repair and modernize the nation's schools.

Minimum Wage

When Congress increased the minimum wage in 1996 and 1997, contrary to opponents' claims, low-wage jobs did not disappear, according to a new study by the Economic Policy Institute. The study found that 63 percent of the gains from a $1-an-hour increase in the minimum wage (currently $5.15 an hour) will go to households in the bottom 40 percent of income distribution and 71 percent of minimum-wage workers are adults. Those on the Internet can see the complete report, The Impact of the Minimum Wage, by visiting www.epinet.org. A related report by the business think tank, the Conference Board, reveals that the rate of poverty among families with full-time workers is increasing.

Social Security

If a candidate for Congress claims to believe in strengthening Social Security, they are being asked to take the pledge. The Sign the Pledge Campaign - organized by a coalition of seniors groups, unions and civil rights, community and religious organizations - asks candidates to oppose privatization, reduction of benefits or increasing the retirement age. It also commits the candidate to oppose converting Medicare to a privatized voucher system or forcing beneficiaries into HMOs and to support use of the budget surplus to strengthen Social Security and Medicare and the creation of a Medicare prescription drug benefit.

Even though most BMWE members will retire under Railroad Retirement, they should know that the Tier I portion of their benefit is the Social Security Equivalent Benefit. When changes are made to Social Security, they are also made to Tier I, such as the recent elimination of the cap on earnings. For more on Social Security, see the separate article in this JOURNAL.

Anti-Hate Crimes

In one win for working families, the Senate June 20 passed 57-42 the anti-hate crimes bill as an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act. The amendment adds actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender and disability to federal hate crimes laws, which currently include race, color, national origin and religion.

NAFTA

The Steelworkers faced off with the federal government June 22 before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, seeking to overturn the North American Free Trade Agreement. The union appealed a lower court ruling last July that upheld NAFTA, even though it was not ratified in 1993 by a two-thirds Senate vote as required by the U.S. Constitution.

Campaign Finance Reform

Saying that the current system of campaign finance reform unfairly rewards corporations and wealthy contributors by amplifying their voice at the expense of ordinary working Americans, the AFL-CIO Executive Council on May 3 reiterated its strong support for real campaign finance reform that would eliminate unfair and undeserved financial advantage, protect constitutional freedoms and encourage openness and integrity in political debate and contests.

The 54-member AFL-CIO Executive council, representing 68 national unions with 13 million working women and men, unanimously passed a resolution calling for comprehensive campaign finance reform. The Council called upon Congress to act decisively and to pass real reform that gives working families more of a voice, not less.

"We must fundamentally reform the system so that wealth no longer yields disproportionate influence. Working families must be able to make their voices heard regardless of how much money they bring to bear on the process," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

"Reform must be comprehensive; piecemeal changes simply prompt big money to find new outlets," he added.

The AFL-CIO supports comprehensive reform including the following six elements:

n Primary and general congressional as well as presidential campaigns ought to be publicly financed, in order to reduce the impact of money, and to free candidates to campaign rather than raise funds. Modest limited individual and PAC contributions should be allowed only as a prerequisite for a candidate to meet a qualifying threshold to receive public funds.

n The current limits on individual contributions to federal candidates and parties should be maintained or reduced, even absent public financing, as proposals to increase these limits only magnify the disproportionate influence to private wealth.

n The law should prohibit unregulated funds - so-called "soft money" - that flows in even greater amounts to political parties and party- and candidate-controlled political committees.

n Independent "soft money" political committees established under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code should be subject to strong registration and reporting requirements, such as those federal law already imposes on "hard money" political committees.

n Candidates should have free access to communications, particularly to working and middle class Americans. Substantial free television and radio time, and reduced postage rates, should be available to candidates in order to control campaign costs and enhance robust and wide debate about the people's business.

n The First Amendment protects the right to engage freely in public issue advocacy; therefore, legal restraints on speech under the guise of campaign finance reform are unwise, potentially unconstitutional, and should be resisted.

The Executive Council also vowed to defend working families against efforts by right wing groups, big business, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Texas Governor George W. Bush to silence their voices in the political process with deceptively named "paycheck protection" measures that are pending in the U.S. Congress and in some State Houses.

"Union members elect their own leaders, vote on their own dues, and determine together how to use the union's resources. 'Paycheck protection' undermines union democracy and erodes the principle of majority rule, and has no legitimate place in any genuine campaign finance reform proposal," said Sweeney.