Workforce: Bush, the GOP, and the Unions

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- President George W. Bush is a warm guy, when you see him one-on-one with firefighters, coal miners or construction workers, there are smiles on everyone's face.

But when it comes to the larger relationship between the Republican Party and the labor unions, it's often step back and get ready to rumble.

In general, union members, it almost goes without saying, vote overwhelmingly democratic, though it should be noted that Bush did receive a healthy 27 percent from union voters in the 2000 election.

Which is to say, that the relationship between the current White House and the unions is a complex one. Against this backdrop has been the renewed American recognition of such working stiffs as firefighters and police, who have been justifiably celebrated as heroes after last year's devastating Sept. 11 terror attacks.

But amid the populist celebration of the nation's workers, the Bush White House has mostly pursued what many unions members view as anti-labor policies.

When it comes to the more liberal AFL-CIO, a federation of over 65 unions, there has not been much love lost between the administration and this union of unions. A recent instance of Bush distance from the AFL-CIO, which has 13 million members, was the White House's ongoing courtship of the rival breakaway union, the United Brotherhood of Joiners and Carpenters.

For the second Labor Day in a row, Bush appeared with the carpenters, in this case at a training facility near Pittsburgh on the Ohio River, where the president was given a warm welcome by UBJC head Douglas J. McCarron.

While McCarron said in his introductory remarks that he will not always agree with Bush on every issues, he stressed that any disagreements would be ones of principle, not personalities, adding "because I believe in the integrity of this man."

The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners quit the AFL-CIO in March of 2000 in what has been described as a gambit to form a breakaway union umbrella organization for union workers in the building trades.

Also, on that same Labor Day, across the country in Chicago, AFL-CIO head John Sweeney lambasted the White House over various labor issues.

"More than two million men and women have been thrown out of work and those who have jobs are finding their wages stagnant and their health care and pensions under attack. " said Sweeney at a large Labor Day gathering on Chicago's Navy Pier. "Meanwhile, the White House keeps sending more and more of our good manufacturing jobs overseas, drags its feet on corporate reforms and refuses to rescind the $1.6 trillion dollar tax break they gave to the same CEOs who are now stealing us blind."

While such labor leaders as James P. Hoffa, of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and McCarron have developed working relationships with Bush, the White House has yet to invite the AFL-CIO's Sweeney over for a visit.

The chill was aptly demonstrated during the White House's formation in March of the President's Council on the Workforce, to which AFL-CIO was not invited, while the carpenters and the Teamsters (also being courted by Bush) were invited.

This doesn't mean that all is rosy between the White House and the large Teamsters union. Among other issues, the Teamsters have disagreed strongly with Bush over the passage of fast-track trade legislation that lacked labor-endorsed wage and workplace safety provisions; and disagreed over the administration's killing of ergonomic workplace rules, designed to reduce repetitive motion problems among workers.

Ultimately, the White House may not divide and conquer America's many labor unions and union workers, but the inroads that Bush has made with the carpenters and the teamsters may well mean a few crucial union votes for the GOP in the upcoming Nov. 5 congressional elections.

The stakes are high, with Republicans and Democrats competing fiercely for control of the Senate and House amid an economy that continues near the flat line, and unemployment stuck at nearly 6 percent for the last several months.

A key election issue among America's labor union workers will be the economy, with each party selling their own vision of how to get economic engine moving in high gear again.