August 2006

Federation Endorses Culver

Governor’s Race Key to Battle for Control 

The Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO Executive Board has voted unanimously to endorse Chet Culver in the 2006 election for Governor of Iowa.

Culver’s responses to the Federation’s Candidate Questionnaire on issues ranging from the minimum wage to education funding to the right to organize and belong to a union demonstrated his understanding of the difficulties faced by workers.  He has pledged, if elected Governor, to support workers and their families.

Culver is running against Republican Jim Nussle, who currently serves in Congress from Iowa’s First Congressional District.  Nussle did not see fit to respond to the Federation’s questionnaire, but has voted with workers only 13 percent of the time during his 16 years in Washington.

Chet Culver has served the last eight years as Iowa’s Secretary of State.  Prior to being elected Secretary of State, he worked as a teacher and football coach and as an investigator in the office of the Iowa Attorney General.  Culver and his wife, Mari, an attorney, have two children, Clare and John.  They live in West Des Moines.  Chet’s father, John Culver, served in the U.S. House and as a U.S. Senator from 1964-1980.

A Rare Opportunity

In 2006 Iowa workers have a rare opportunity to shift the power in state government in their favor for a change.  Since 1968 Republicans have always controlled at least one branch of state government—the House, the Senate or the Governor’s office.  In recent years, partisanship has grown increasingly sharp, with Democrats generally taking the

workers’ side, while Republicans align with business and the wealthy.  With Republicans in control, workers have had to fend off countless attacks on their rights and benefits, hoping just to maintain the status quo.

The possibility of a Democratic, worker-friendly House and Senate after this election is very real.  Add a Democratic Governor—Chet Culver—and Iowa workers will be positioned to make advances they have been craving for decades, such as an increase in the minimum wage, fair taxes, expanded scope of bargaining, prevailing wage, funding for education and health care.

But the possibility only becomes real when workers and their families get informed, get active, and get out and vote for labor-endorsed candidates.  Politics is not a spectator sport.  Elections and their consequences critically impact the lives of workers and their families.  It’s time for workers to take control, put their friends in charge in the Iowa statehouse and create the kind of bright future we envision for our children and grandchildren.

Workers’ Agenda Stalls in 2006

The 2006 legislative session was predictably unproductive when it came to workers’ issues.  An equally divided Senate with 25 Republicans and 25 Democrats and a razor-thin 51-49 Republican majority in the House virtually precluded either party from advancing their agenda.

Election-year politics also played a role.  Republicans played to their business supporters by pushing for special interest tax cuts, as well as cuts in Workers’ Compensation benefits, lower wage requirements for economic development projects, and a change in the rules on employee drug-testing which would have made workers guilty until proven innocent if their drug test was inconclusive.  Democrats tried to help workers by introducing legislation to raise the minimum wage, increase worker safety and put limits on the amount of interest loan sharks could charge when you put your car up for collateral.  All failed.

Both parties pandered to senior voters by passing a $118 million per year tax cut for persons over age 65.  This tax cut is both ill-advised and unfair.  Middle- and upper-income retirees will get huge tax breaks, while working families must shoulder the increased burden of state budget shortfalls that have already forced major tuition increases for college students and the closure of 15 Workforce Development offices across the state, not to mention on-going unmet needs in state infrastructure, staffing for OSHA, Workers’ Compensation, human services, and public safety, to mention just a few.

There were a few bright notes to the 2006 session.  Republicans and Democrats managed to agree to:

• Pass long over due raises in pay for teachers;

• Increase funding for expanded preschool programs; and

• Increase contribution rates to keep the public employee pension plan solvent.

One thing is certain.  A workers’ agenda will not move forward without a worker-friendly legislature.  The things we care about – healthcare, improved education funding, increased minimum wage, prevailing wage, funding for OSHA inspectors, fair taxes – depend on electing a Democratic majority in both the House and the Senate and a Democratic governor.  The effort that we put into electing worker-friendly candidates in November 2006 will determine whether working families make progress in 2007.

Bush NLRB Threatens Union Members

Are you a team leader at your plant?  A charge nurse at the hospital?  A construction foreman?  If you are, the decisions that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) make on a series of upcoming cases may well make you ineligible to be a union member on the grounds that you’re a supervisor, and therefore, not eligible to be a union member.

At a July 10, 2006 press conference in Des Moines, Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Ken Sagar estimated that several thousand union members in Iowa and hundreds of thousands nationwide could become ineligible for union membership if the Bush NLRB reclassifies them as supervisors.

The AFL-CIO is coordinating an effort to demand that the NLRB hear oral arguments in the cases.  To date, the NLRB has refused to hold public hearings, allowing workers to provide evidence that they are not supervisors.  The Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO has asked members of the Iowa congressional delegation to urge the NLRB to agree to hear oral arguments in the three cases known collectively as “Kentucky River.” 

99% of Iowans Lose Money With Bush Tax Cuts

If it feels like the Bush tax cuts haven’t made any difference to your finances—just wait until the bill for the cuts comes due.

A new study by Citizens for Tax Justice has found that most Americans and 99% of all Iowans will end up net losers under the Bush tax cuts.  The dirty little secret about Bush’s tax cuts is that they are being funded with borrowed money.  The added cost per person to the national debt as a result of Bush’s tax cuts is a staggering $9,173 per person.

Peter Fisher, Research Director for the nonpartisan Iowa Policy Project, after examining the report said, “The tax cuts, perceived as a gift, turn out to be a loan, on terms that would make a loan shark blush.”  According to Fisher, the net cost to Iowans will be three-and-a-half times what they actually received in tax cuts.

Human Rights Watch has already labeled U.S. labor law as “out-of-compliance” with international human rights norms.  Included among their findings—low-level supervisors and other categories of workers numbering in the millions are expressly denied labor-law protection for organizing and bargaining rights.

Paris Hilton’s Tax Break

You’ve got to be a multi-millionaire to be required to pay any estate tax now.  Yet, in spite of the huge federal deficit, the fourth highest ever, Republicans are still pushing to reduce or repeal the estate tax.

The push for repeal comes even though the estates of 99.5 percent of the people pay nothing under the estate tax.  By 2009, under current law, the threshold for paying any estate taxes at all is set to rise to $3.5 million for a single person and $7 million for a couple.  At this level of taxation, fewer than 100 family businesses and only 65 farm estates nationwide would owe any tax.  And worse yet, because large estates are mainly comprised of “unrealized” capital gains, many assets have never been subject to taxation—without an estate tax the wealthy get off entirely tax-free!

Contact Senator Grassley and Senator Harkin and tell them to vote NO when the legislation to repeal or weaken the estate tax comes up in the U.S. Senate.

Iowa Candidates for Congress are Fighting for All U.S. Workers

The 2006 Iowa mid-term races for the U.S. House are receiving national attention as Democrats seek to wrest control of Congress from Republicans who have controlled the U.S. House since 1994.  A change in the status quo from the current 1 Democratic seat (Boswell) and 4 Republican seats (King, Latham, Leach, open Nussle seat) could result in a national power shift.

That’s why our political efforts this summer and fall are so important.  If we can help put the House in Democratic control, we will have helped to block the anti-worker agenda that President George Bush has relentlessly pushed through the Republican Congress.

Labor’s Choice in CD-1: Bruce Braley

In one of the most-watched House races in the nation, Democrat attorney Bruce Braley of Waterloo faces Republican businessman Mike Whalen of Bettendorf in eastern Iowa’s First Congressional District..

Braley will be a strong advocate for workers.  He supports increasing the minimum wage, adopting the Employee Free Choice Act and protecting consumers from corporate greed and oil-company price-gouging.  He opposes NAFTA-like trade deals and will fight the privatization of Social Security and the weakening of Medicare.

Whalen, a multimillionaire who owns several restaurants (including the Machine Shed) and hotels, served as chair of the National Center for Policy Analysis, where he took a lead role in efforts to privatize Social Security and oppose increasing the minimum wage.

Nussle

Labor’s Choice in CD-2: Dave Loebsack

Democrat Dave Loebsack, an international relations professor at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, is challenging incumbent Republican Jim Leach in Iowa’s Second Congressional District.

Loebsack believes that keeping Americans safe is the primary issue in his campaign, along with health care, decent jobs with decent wages, retirement security, and education for the 21st century.

Leach has served in the U.S. Congress for the last 28 years, where he has voted against workers sixty-five percent of the time.

Labor’s Choice in CD-3: Leonard Boswell

In central Iowa’s Third Congressional District incumbent Democratic Representative Leonard Boswell is being challenged by Iowa Senate Co-President Jeff Lamberti, a Republican attorney from Ankeny.

As a member of Congress for the last 10 years, Boswell has fought for workers, families and consumers.  He strongly opposed the privatization of Social Security.  He is a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act and has voted repeatedly to raise the minimum wage.  He believes that corporations and corporate executives must be held responsible for their actions.

Lamberti was elected to the Iowa House in 1994 and to the Iowa Senate in1998.  He has voted to ban public sector Project Labor Agreements and cut Workers’ Compensation and unemployment benefits.  His lifetime voting record is a pathetic 12%.

Labor’s Choice in CD-4: Selden Spencer

Democrat candidate, Dr. Selden Spencer, a neurologist, is opposing incumbent Republican Tom Latham in Iowa’s Fourth District Congressional race.

Spencer says he is upset with the Republican administration’s culture of corruption, “I think the leadership is jeopardizing our future.” Spencer wants to make education a priority, make healthcare accessible to all Americans, and work toward lowering the national debt.

Latham, a wealthy farmer and businessman, has served 12 years in Congress and has voted against workers 91 percent of the time.  He has opposed an increase in the minimum wage and votes with George W. Bush on trade deals and tax cuts.

Labor’s Choice in CD-5: Joyce Schulte

Democrat Joyce Schulte is facing incumbent Republican Steve King in western Iowa’s Fifth Congressional District in a rematch of their 2004 race.

Education is a primary issue for Schulte, who says that current 5th District Representative King has “chosen to take a giant step backwards in the protection of children and the creation of opportunities for them, choosing instead to support corporate and personal greed, and tax breaks for energy, pharmaceutical and insurance companies, and the super rich.”

King has a proven anti-worker track record in both the U.S. Congress, where he voted with workers only 9 percent of the time in the last 4 years, and in the Iowa Senate, where he voted with workers only 7 percent of the time.

ARE YOU BETTER OFF YET?

“This economy is powerful, productive and prosperous.  And we intend to keep it that way.” - George W. Bush, May 2006

President George W. Bush claims the economy is humming along nicely.  The fact is—the economic growth that is occurring is benefiting only the wealthiest Americans.  Workers are among the 90 percent of Americans who are losing economic ground under Bush’s policies.

IOWA CAMPAIGNWATCH - Fact Check

Republican congressional candidate Jeff Lamberti, at a July 11 press conference, blamed Congressman Leonard Boswell for “out-of control” federal spending.  Lamberti’s charge is preposterous—it’s based on Boswell’s decision to vote for a “take it or leave it” spending bill that reached the floor packed with individual items over which he had no say.  On the other hand, Republican Jim Nussle, the House Budget Chair, had absolute control over the bill and its contents.  Lamberti’s attack on Boswell misses the mark—his criticism that the federal budget is “out of control” should be aimed directly at Jim Nussle.  But that would be hard for Lamberti to do, since his name and Nussle’s will be together on the Republican ticket this fall.

You’re On Your Own

“You’re On Your Own” (YO-YO) is the economic philosophy that drives the Republican agenda at both the state and federal levels.  It means:

• If your company moves to China - too bad; get a job at McDonalds - you're on your own.

• If college tuition goes up 62% like it did in Iowa the last five years - too bad; we won't put any money into tuition support - you're on your own.

• If you're broke because you lost your job and had high health care bills and no insurance - too bad; we're going to make it virtually impossible for you to file for bankruptcy  -  you're on your own.

• If you work for minimum wage (frozen at $5.15 since 1997) -  too bad; we refuse to raise it - you're on your own.

• If your grandchild is in an overcrowded classroom and isn't learning to read - too bad; we don't have any money - you're on your own.

• If they "privatize Social Security" and take away your guaranteed retirement check and the stock market crashes and you private account goes to hell - too bad - you're on your own.

Jim Nussle is a YO-YOer

Our own 1st District Congressman, Republican Jim Nussle, is the Chairman of the powerful House Budget Committee that has driven President Bush’s YO-YO agenda.  He’s designed and voted for the massive tax cuts for the rich, cuts in education, cuts in healthcare, and all the other bills favoring businesses and corporations over workers and their families.

Now he wants to be Governor and put his YO-YO ideas to work in Iowa.  We don’t need a YO-YOer as Governor of Iowa.

Labor Day Message - 2006

Labor Day is the one day a year that Americans celebrate workers and the work they do.  Workers and their unions are justifiably proud that our efforts have helped to humanize the workplace and society at large.

But there is a long way to go.  Today our nation faces critical choices: are we a country with opportunity and rewards for all, or do we continue to give the lion’s share of the nation’s wealth to corporations and CEOs?  Do we secure Social Security and Medicare for the future, feed the hungry, rebuild our schools and stop the headlong rush into debt, or do we continue giving tax breaks to the wealthy?  Do we foster a spirit of community and join together for the good of all or do we tell our neighbors—you’re on your own.

The so-called global economy poses huge challenges. The loss of decent, good-paying jobs, declining health care coverage and the disappearance of company-sponsored pension plans have left many Americans who work full-time without a chance at attaining the American Dream.

This Labor Day, workers and their unions are committed to building a more just society—one which cares for its young, its old and its poor, and leaves the rich to fend for themselves.