AUSTIN -- This poignant Labor Day, when the numbers are bad, the
policies are worse and the jobs are disappearing, it's not so much the
economy that riles me as the disrespect and the gratuitous contempt with
which this administration treats working Americans. The old insult to
injury.
If we've had an administration so blinkered by class blinders
before, it is not within my memory. What these people know about
working-class Americans would fit in a gnat's eye. In the summer of 2002,
when Ted Kennedy and the late Paul Wellstone were working to get an
emergency extension on unemployment benefits -- something that has been
largely pro forma under earlier administrations -- Majority Whip Tom DeLay
protested that Democrats want "unlimited unemployment so people could stay
out of work for the rest of their lives." Actually, one million unemployed
workers had already exhausted their benefits before the House finally acted
in January 2003, and were simply left in the streets with nothing under the
too-little, too-late Bush bill.
The idea that workers lead the life of Riley on unemployment
compensation and want to "stay out of work for the rest of the lives" is so
blatantly untrue it would be comical, if one could dredge up a laugh. Anyone
who has been through the mill of unemployment, with the endless rounds of
appointments, waiting, applications, interviews, taking the bus to the job
training program and finally walking when you can't afford a bus, knows
precisely how insulting this hooey is.
In February 2003, one of the most extraordinary sessions ever
recorded between labor and a sitting labor secretary took place. Secretary
Elaine Chao, whose chief qualification for the job seems to be that she is
the wife of right-wing Sen. Mitch McConnell, met with the AFL-CIO's
executive council. "Participants said Chao shocked the group by opposing any
increase in the minimum wage, showing no sympathy for retired steelworkers
who lost pension benefits, and reciting a list of legal actions her
department has taken against unions and their leaders," reported The
Washington Post. "We had a pretty unbelievable session," said John J.
Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO. "She was angry at points, insulting at
points. I said that in all my years in labor, I've never seen a secretary so
anti-labor.
"There was a lot of shock and amazement in the room," said Leo
Gerard, president of the Steelworkers. "We were made to feel we were the
enemy." Fortunately, Chao's condescending, insulting and hostile performance
quite united labor, including the building trades and the teamsters, against
the Bush administration. Nothing like a little old-fashioned solidarity.
Another insulting episode came when Bush named Eugene Scalia,
son of the Supreme Court justice, solicitor of the Department of Labor,
apparently as a cruel joke. Scalia's specialty as a K Street lobbyist was
fighting ergonomic regulations. For years he attacked and mocked the very
idea of repetitive stress injuries, calling them "junk science," "exotic and
absurd, like a trip through Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean." "Work
less, and you'll feel better! Why I've experienced the same thing myself!"
He has written that heavy lifting does not cause back strain and reported
increases in repetitive stress injuries are caused by "feeding frenzies."
Try doing the same thing hundreds and hundreds of times an hour, hour after
hour, day after day, week after week. Neither Mr. Scalia nor President Bush
has ever held a job that involved physical labor.
One of this administration's first actions was to repeal the
ergonomic regulations that prevent repetitive stress. Two years later, the
administration solved the entire problem with characteristic brilliance --
it revoked the provision requiring employers to report such injuries! This
was almost as good as the time the administration solved global warming by
simply editing it out of an environmental report. Just the other day, Bush
said he had been elected to "solve problems" and, boy, howdy, does he. Even
better, he's solving the entire problem of workplace injuries and deaths by
trying to weaken OSHA! A new House bill would reduce penalties and weaken
OSHA's enforcement powers to correct safety and health standards. About six
million American workers are injured on the job every year, and more die in
workplace accidents annually than were killed during the Sept. 11 attacks.
Ha, ha, ha, how funny, let's just have companies stop reporting these
things.
I know as well as you do that many companies make a terrific
effort on worker safety: Bush's first Treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill, was
justly proud of the record at Alcoa (he's the one they fired, of course).
Perhaps there are a few people on worker's comp who seem to have no trouble
lifting their bass boats off the trailer. But I happen not to find thousands
of dead and millions of injured workers annually funny. No one doubts that
this administration will continue to screw the workers of America -- but I'd
appreciate it if they'd can the sarcasm in the meantime.
To find out more about Molly Ivins and read features by other
Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web
page at
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COPYRIGHT 2003 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
