our marching orders
'Take our country back'
It was too long coming, but President Bush finally had to concede in January that things aren’t going so well for ordinary Americans. Even so, it was only after world markets began behaving badly in response to the U.S. credit crunch that the administration started talking about ways to pump some life back into the ailing economy.
We could say (and we do) better late than never. But working people have been feeling the squeeze for some time now – at the gas pump and the grocery store, and at the dining room table when they sit down to try to pay mortgage, utility and college loan bills.
The tough time facing working families were at the top of the agenda for more than 1,400 delegates to the UAW Community Action Program (CAP) Legislative Conference who gathered in Washington in February to plan the union’s 2008 political agenda.
CAP delegate Pete Miller, a UAW Local 12 member who works at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center in Toledo, Ohio, said it’s important to focus on making opportunities available for future generations.
“My parents came from middle-class backgrounds, and they were able to go to college,” said Miller. But will their grandchildren be able to do that?”
“There’s a huge disconnect between what’s going on in Washington and what’s going on in the rest of America. That’s why we’re here this week. We’re going to bring back the American Dream,” he said.
Median household income fell between 2000 and 2006, while the cost of food and fuel have gone up every year since 2003. People are falling further behind and many are no longer even getting by, as evidenced by the rate of home foreclosures and accumulated credit card debt in the last few years.
While the tax rebates settled on by Congress and the Bush administration in February provide a much-needed injection of cash into the economy, the larger problem with the stimulus package is that it can’t go far enough to right the wrong policies that put us here in the first place.
Tax cuts for the rich and spending on the war in Iraq have meant there’s little left for investing in the creation of new jobs, education and programs that help build the economy. And seven years of Bush’s anti-union labor board have kept millions of American workers from exercising their right to join a union, the surest way to achieving good wages and economic security.
Bad trade deals have cost U.S. workers 3 million jobs. That includes thousands of UAW members like Billy McIntosh and his co-workers at Borg Warner in Muncie, Ind. The company announced in 2007 that it will close the plant next year and move the work to Mexico. (See story on page 16.)
At the same time another 4 million workers lost their health insurance between 2000 and 2006. They are people like Rachel Kearney, who has been denied a policy by insurance companies because she has a kidney disease. (See story on page 18.) Rachel’s father, Tom Kearney, was a CAP Conference delegate. He’s pushing for a national health care plan, so his daughter and others would never be left without health care.
Fair trade, labor law reform and investing in high-paying U.S. jobs are also top UAW priorities in 2008. Union members met with their lawmakers to discuss these issues and other economic problems working families are confronting and pledged to step up their game this year to elect a president and legislators who will put people first.
“Brothers and sisters, the change that we need is to take our country back on behalf of hard-working Americans who made it great in the first place,” said UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, opening the conference. “That’s our directive. That’s our marching orders.”
Pamela Powell, a delegate from UAW Local 849, Automotive Components Holdings in Ypsilanti, Mich., said she understands that sometimes people feel helpless when it comes to trying to effect change on a national scale. But by working together, union members can help each other and help the whole country. “If we all work together, collectively we can do a lot. Even if it’s just one thing, if everyone does it, it builds and really makes a difference.”
Gettelfinger said the kind of change the union seeks is a direct challenge to the forces of wealth and privilege in the country.
“They will strongly resist our efforts. But we’ll be ready,” he said. “We’ll be ready because every single one of us is committed to working as hard as possible to win this election on behalf of working people.”
