by Chris Townsend, UE Political Action Director
The Republican Party’s resurgence at the polls will launch a new era of attacks, at the federal and state levels, against working people. The optimism and high hopes of the 2008 campaign are now memories. In two years, Democrats squandered an historic opportunity to set the nation on a progressive path in the wake of the Bush economic debacle. Throughout 2009 and 2010, Democrats fell into just about every trap the Republicans set for them, and the GOP – widely disgraced just two years ago – mounted a dramatic comeback simply by blocking any significant forward progress. Now working class Americans are about to pay the price for this historic political turnabout.
The breadth and ferocity of the coming attacks will surprise some, especially workers who voted for Republicans on November 2, many on the basis of “throw-the-bums-out” frustration. Just about all that remains of the social safety net and worker protection laws built over the past 80 years will be targeted, and the labor movement and progressives will be fighting multiple defensive battles, starting with the New Year.
On the national level, the marginal Senate majority still held by Democrats may prevent many of the attacks from becoming law, and it is hoped that President Obama will use his veto pen if needed. Given the weakness shown by Democrats on many issues, however – and their irrational obsession with “bipartisanship” – it’s clear we’ll need to keep an eye on lawmakers in both parties.
Republicans who captured control of several state legislatures and governors’ seats in November have indicated that they have anti-worker agendas similar to their congressional counterparts. Major battles over working-class issues now loom in most state legislatures, with public sector workers coming under particularly heavy attack when legislatures reconvene in January.
What follows is an overview of some of the attacks against workers now being prepared at the national and state levels.
CONGRESSIONAL ANTI-WORKER AGENDA
Social Security. High on the hit list of Congressional Republicans is Social Security. The bipartisan “deficit commission” set up by President Obama has added false legitimacy to the assault on this highly-successful social insurance program, which is not really part of the federal budget and has a huge surplus. Look for attempts to raise the retirement age to 70, reduce benefits, gut Medicare, and more. The ultimate goal of these attacks is privatization – allowing the same Wall Street speculators who gambled away the value of our homes to get their greedy hands on the $2.5 trillion Social Security Trust Fund.
Healthcare. While the healthcare bill passed by Democrats earlier this year left much to be desired, it included many positive reforms, but Republicans ran for election promising to repeal the entire thing. They will soon run into a contradiction between their rhetoric and their corporate campaign funding. The big insurance companies are eager to destroy the law’s patient-protection provisions – such as those requiring them to insure people despite “pre-existing conditions”, and allowing parents to keep adult children up to age 26 on their policies. But Big Insurance loves the part of the law that requires all individuals to buy insurance, and insurance executives will tell Republicans to leave the “individual mandate” in place. Meanwhile, Congressional deficit hypocrites – Republicans and some Democrats – want to make you pay income tax on the health insurance premiums that your employer pays.
Jobs. Congressional Republicans have blocked extension of unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless, voted down several jobs bills, and announced their intent to kill stimulus projects such as high-speed rail and “green job” initiatives. They’re even up in arms against Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (a Republican) for recent actions designed to stimulate the economy – even though the Fed’s monetary adjustments involve no federal spending. In short, Capitol Hill Republicans are against anything that improves the economy. Why? Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell has repeatedly declared that defeating Obama in 2012 is his number one priority, and the GOP has decided that keeping the economy in crisis (and unemployment high) is the key to victory in 2012 – as it was in 2010. One of the few areas where they might cooperate with Obama would be to pass new “free trade” deals – which have been shown to be job killers, not job creators.
Federal Deficit. The hypocrisy of congressional conservatives is perhaps most obvious on the deficit. The main causes of the massive federal deficit are the Bush tax cuts for big business and the wealthy, runaway military spending and multi-trillion dollar wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, sky-high healthcare costs, and reduced tax revenue caused by mass unemployment. So what do the Republicans propose? Maintain tax cuts for billionaires, keep the wars going forever, sabotage jobs programs, defend the obscene profits of the insurance and drug industries – and slash every domestic program that benefits ordinary people, from education to transportation to Social Security.
Public Employees. Republicans demonized public employees during their election campaign, as if these workers caused the economic crisis, and we can expect them to attack the wages, health benefits, pensions, and union rights of rank-and-file federal employees. President Obama unfortunately contributed to this trend by proposing a pay freeze for federal workers. (The federal pay freeze would not apply, of course, to members of Congress, cabinet members, the President and Vice President, Supreme Court justices, generals and admirals, etc.)
Union Rights. Having blocked EFCA, Republicans are expected to push for its opposite: legislation that would outlaw union recognition by card check. They may also vote for so-called “anti-salting” legislation to make it legal to fire workers suspected of wanting to organize a union. Some version of the misnamed “paycheck protection” legislation is also expected, aimed at stripping workers of the ability to defend themselves through union political action.
EXPECTED STATE GOVERNMENT ATTACKS
Budgets. Republicans plan to balance state budgets by laying off thousands of state employees and cutting the pay and benefits of those who remain. Demands for pay cuts will likely be combined with mandatory furloughs and other wage-reduction schemes. Making corporations and the rich pay their fair share of taxes will be off the table and out-of-bounds.
Pensions and Healthcare. Public employee pensions at the state and local levels will be hit especially hard, as will health insurance. Anti-worker politicans argue that, since private employers have largely stolen their workers’ pensions, public workers must also be robbed of the right to retire in dignity.
Education. Public school and university budgets will be slashed, and employees will face layoffs, wage reductions, and attacks on benefits. Increases in tuition and fees for state college students will also hurt working-class families.
Union Rights. In several states where Republican now control the governor’s office and both houses of the legislature, there will be new attempts to pass so-called “right to work” laws that ban union shop and agency shop contracts (in the private sector as well as public employment.) Such laws encourage union-represented workers to “freeload” by refusing to pay union dues. State “paycheck protection” bills are also expected – meant to prevent union political action. Watch for Republican governors and legislators to try to amend state collective bargaining laws to restrict the issues over which workers can negotiate. We’re also likely to see state efforts to pass “EFCA-in-reverse” laws making it illegal for an employer to recognize a union that proves its majority through card check. Also on the anti-worker legislative agenda: attacks on workers’ compensation, and attempts to ban “Project Labor Agreements” and weaken “prevailing wage” rules that maintain decent pay for construction workers on publicly-funded projects.
Privatization. Even though outsourcing of public services has been a costly failure almost everywhere it’s been tried, watch for Republicans to propose more of it. Many politicians love privatization because it lets them use taxpayer money to repay business friends who have donated to their campaigns.
The coming sessions of Congress and many state legislatures will be extremely hazardous to workers and our families. Emboldened Republican lawmakers and their corporate backers have an aggressive anti-worker agenda, and members of UE and other unions need to be prepared to fight hard to defend ourselves, and defend the interests of all working people. Keep yourself and your co-workers informed of develpments and alerts by regularly visiting the Political Action Update at UE’s website.