Bush, the anti-labor obstructionist
Not surprisingly, Bush is waving his veto pen at anything even remotely supporting American workers:
Five of the 24 veto threats President Bush has issued since Democrats took control of Congress target bills with provisions that benefit unions and their members.
Measures passed by either the House or Senate making it easier for unions to organize workplaces, stiffening penalties for union busting or establishing more collective bargaining rights for federal employees are among those under veto threats. Often they're tucked into the fine print provisions and not the major subject of the bill itself.
"There's really a lot of examples where he's looked at legislation, it seems, from the perspective of, 'Will this help workers?' 'Will this help workers win representation?' And if the answer is yes, he finds a reason to veto it," said William Samuel, the AFL-CIO's chief lobbyist.
Meanwhile, cases like this are Exhibit A in the argument for the Employee Free Choice Act:
In a setback for Wal-Mart, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a lawsuit claiming off-the-clock violations could proceed as a class action on behalf of nearly 80,000 current and former Wal-Mart employees.
Judith L. Spanier, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, applauded the decision, saying the case resembled a Pennsylvania class action in which a jury ordered Wal-Mart Stores to pay $78 million last October, after finding that managers had forced employees to work off the clock and miss many breaks.
American workers have suffered long enough under the failed policies of neoclassical/trickle-down economics. Workers have been trickled on long enough, and it's high time to start restoring the prosperity of the middle class. Wages have declined in real purchasing power for many years now, mainly due to the decline of the unions and the pro-corporatist laws and "free" trade agreements which caused the decline. A reversal of that trend is long overdue.