Labor Department Holds Summit

On June 20, the Department of Labor sponsored the Summit on the 21st Century Workplace, an opportunity for leaders from business, labor, academia and government to discuss the

President Bush speaks to the 21st Century Workplace Summit. Photo by Paul Morse

evolving workplace. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao kicked off the conference and job fair in Washington D.C. by offering bromides on bread-and-butter labor issues. "We still need to protect workers’ safety and health, retirement security, and equal access to jobs and promotions," said Chao. "During today’s Summit, I want us to focus on three issues that will impact our nation’s economic strength in the decades ahead, and shape the quality of life of America’s working families: the skills gap, our demographic destiny and the future of the American workplace." Chao went on to focus on training, the rights of the handicapped and seniors’ right to continue to work, but she steered clear of potentially "controversial" issues, such as ergonomics, globalization and the right to organize.

Also speaking at the conference was President George W. Bush. "One of the greatest advances in our time is that persons with disabilities have been more welcomed in the workplace, but there’s still more to do," Bush told Summit participants. "I’ve also asked Congress to create a fund to help people with disabilities to buy the equipment they need to telecommute. We’ll provide tax incentives to encourage employers to provide such equipment. And we’ll protect home offices from needless OSHA regulations."

At the summit, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney addressed a wide range of issues, including

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney testifies at a related hearing.

increasing the minimum wage, and the enforcement of regulations on wages, hours, health and safety. "Nowadays," warned Sweeney, "there also is the contention, commonly heard among advocates of unregulated globalization, that people caught in poverty just need income and employment; that basic rights are not relevant. But as the ILO [International Labor Organization] points out, unless fundamental rights are insisted upon – including the right to join or form unions free from interference by employers – the viewpoint of ‘work first, decent work later’ will prevail, and, all too often the ‘later’ never arrives. Decent work is work that pays enough to raise a family, with enough time off to enjoy life a little, work that enables you to send your kids to college, to cope with unforeseen emergencies, especially when it comes to health care, and to enjoy a secure retirement." Sweeney went further, saying, "We believe more must be done to help ensure a dignified and secure retirement for American workers. That includes expanding defined-benefits pension coverage for low- and moderate-wage workers. But it does not include converting part of Social Security into private investment accounts, and paying for the transition by draining off assets, cutting benefits and raising the retirement age to 70."

Chao’s Remarks | President Bush’s Remarks | Sweeney’s Remarks

Starting Over on Ergonomics

The Labor Department also hosted three forums where business and labor officials were invited to offer their thoughts on workplace safety rules. Labor Secretary Chao said that she is seeking a variety of viewpoints as the Bush administration considers whether new rules are needed to replace those repealed by Congress in March. Those regulations, which took nearly ten years to pass, were enacted late in Bill Clinton’s presidency and established

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.

guidelines on how businesses should respond to complaints of musculoskeletal disorders and repetitive stress injuries. Chao has said that she will announce the Bush administration’s plans on workplace safety in September, but she has yet to say whether those plans will include new rules or merely voluntary guidelines, which are preferred by industry.

At the first forum, held July 16 and 17 at George Mason University in Virginia, labor leaders accused Chao of favoring business by allowing more witnesses to testify in favor of corporate interests than of labor. The key argument was whether scientific evidence adequately proves that workplace conditions can cause repetitive motion injuries. Chao, who is trying to improve relations between the White House and labor, has claimed that she wants to reach a consensus. Doing so may prove difficult, however, given the gap that remains between labor and business on this issue. "The National Association of Manufacturers and other industry opponents want to change the definition and recording of musculoskeletal disorders so that fewer injuries are identified and recorded," said Richard L. Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO. "Instead of protecting workers, the Bush Administration is following the industry's script and hopes it can simply define the problem of MSDs away."

"Industry doesn't want any new rules," said Peg Seminario, AFL-CIO safety director, "and they'll say whatever it takes to prevent them."

New York Times | Testimony by Trumka

Ending Workplace Protection, Corporate Taxes and Social Security

Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill has become an outspoken advocate of further reductions in the responsibilities of government. A former Alcoa CEO, O’Neill dismissed OSHA’s ergonomics plan and offered a standard that would be dependent on highly subjective tallies of injuries. Under O’Neill’s plan, companies would be required to reduce workplace injuries to two cases per year for every one hundred workers, regardless of the injury.

O’Neill has freely presented other extreme views, as well, perhaps with the goal of testing public reaction to conservative positions. In a recent interview with the Financial Times, he backed the complete abolition of taxes on corporations and questioned why the government should provide Social Security, Medicare or any other social insurance. "Able-bodied adults," said O’Neill, "should save enough on a regular basis so that they can provide for their own retirement and, for that matter, health and medical needs."

Robert Reich, who was labor secretary under President Clinton, decried O’Neill’s proposals. "The idea for Social Security was dreamed up by Labor Secretary Frances Perkins and signed into law by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935. Unemployment insurance and welfare were parts of the original scheme," writes Reich. "The broad idea was easily understood by the generations that experienced the Depression, World War II, the Cold War and some deep recessions. Any family could find itself down on its luck, through no fault of its own. Family savings could go down the drain if the economy turned really sour."

O’Neill’s libertarian dreams may come back to haunt him as the 2002 mid-term elections draw closer, and organized labor looks for foes to unseat.

Financial Times

National Election Standards

In light of the mishandling of ballots in the Florida 2000 presidential election, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka has called for support of the Equal Protection of Voting Rights Act introduced by Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and Representative John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.). The measure would ensure the right of every American citizen to vote by requiring all 50 states to meet three new minimum election standards. The standards would permit voters to verify their ballots before casting them, it would ensure that registered voters whose names do not appear on voter rolls can cast provisional ballots, and it would require that voters receive sample ballots and voting instructions before Election Day.

AFL-CIO Press Release | House Bill | Senate Bill

Organized Labor’s Efforts Continue in Sacramento

Several promising bills are making their way through the California legislature.

Currently, California is the only state without a cabinet-level labor agency modeled after the federal Department of Labor, and as a result, there is little or no policy coordination between state agencies and departments that deal with labor relations and workplace issues. Senate Bill 25, sponsored by California State Senator Richard Alarcon (D-San Fernando Valley), would create such a coordinating body.

Another worthy bill would increase benefit levels for a woefully inadequate California Workers’ Compensation system. Senate President Pro Tem John Burton’s (D-San Francisco) SB 71 seeks to address workplace injuries that harm 800,000 Californians every year – one worker in 20. With more than 150,000 claims every year for temporary disabilities, and 130,000 for permanent disabilities, most permanently injured workers face a maximum weekly benefit that has been frozen for 18 years. This bill would increase benefit levels for both temporarily and permanently disabled workers.

Workers’ Comp opponents, Assembly members Keith Richman (R-Northridge), Ken Maddox (R-Garden Grove), and Tom Harman (R-Huntington Beach) held a press conference on Workers’ Comp reform. Harman argued that penalties for fraud should double, as "it is a major force driving up costs." But representatives of the California Federation of Labor refuted this and stated that fraud accounts for less than 1% of workers compensation costs.

California’s unemployment insurance benefits, which currently rank last in the nation, would substantially rise with the passage of Senator Alarcon’s SB 40. Alarcon’s bill would increase the maximum benefit from $230 to $380 per week over a 3-year period, index the benefit level and create a movable base period to help support contingent workers.

On the workplace safety front, Senate Bill 123, offered by Martha Escuita (D-Whittier), would require the removal of appointees from the CalOSHA Standards and Appeals Boards as their terms end. Currently, several board members appointed by former Governor Pete Wilson, a foe of organized labor, continue to serve long after their terms have expired. The bill also requires Senate confirmation of appointees to the Boards, which establish workplace health and safety standards.

Additional legislative initiatives can be viewed on the California Labor Federation site.

California Labor Federation