Bush (Anti-Labor) 

FACT: Bush blocked mechanics at Northwest Airlines from going on strike by ordering a 60-day cooling off period. After hearing that four other major airlines could face potential strikes in coming months, Bush said, "I am concerned about their impact, concerned about what it could mean to this economy and I intend to take the necessary steps to prevent airline strikes from happening this year." President of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, Sonny Hall said, "Perhaps the most disturbing aspect about the President's remarks today is what some may interpret as a rush to judgment and a simultaneous promise to poison the collective bargaining process." 

George W. Bush (Anti-Labor, Anti-Women, Corporate Interests, Lies) 

FACT: Bush repealed ergonomic safety regulations, which were 10 years in the making. Gregory A. Denier, spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, said the regulation would have prevented 600,000 injuries a year through such changes as better workstation design for chicken de-boners and meat packers. Martha G. Burk, chair of the National Council of Women's Organizations, an umbrella for 120 groups representing 6 million people, said women suffer many ergonomic injuries from keyboard work and machine cleaning, and called the repeal "a slap in the face of women." 

COMMENT: Meanwhile, Bush claims that, "The safety and health of our nation's workforce is a priority for my administration."

Bush (Lies, Anti-Labor) 

FACT: Bush blocks rules meant to make it easier for sick coal miners to receive black lung benefits, despite the fact that he promised to support the same benefits while campaigning. United Mine Workers President, Cecil Roberts said, "It seems suspect that now, just a few weeks after Mr. Bush took office, we are witnessing a full-scale reversal on the assurance to fight for the immediate implementation of the regulations by the very same government lawyers who made it in the first place." 

Bush (Anti-Labor, Corporate Interests) 

FACT: Bush supported legislation that would repeal federal regulations helping workers with repetitive-motion injuries. Under the repealed regulations, employers would have to inform workers about repetitive-motion injuries, provide free access to doctors and pay 90 percent of employees' pay for the first 90 days they missed work because of a work-related repetitive-stress injury. Cashiers, assembly-line workers, meat cutters, forklift operators, secretaries and computer operators are among the many that are affected by the changes. 

Bush (Anti-Labor) 

FACT: Bush signs executive orders banning project labor agreements, eliminating the National Partnership Council and taking away job protection for service industry workers contracting with the government; he also reinstates an executive order requiring contractors to post notices about union dues.

Linda Chavez (Lies, Anti-Labor) 

FACT: If you recall, Linda Chavez was dismissed before she could be confirmed as Secretary of Labor, because she was employing an illegal alien as a live-in housework slave. Soon after that, Chavez appeared on CNN to make her case. "I think organized labor, I think quite mistakenly, somehow thought that I was going to be their worst nemesis," she told Wolf Blitzer. "I think I would have actually been very helpful in trying to bridge a gap that exists between the Republican Party and organized labor." A subsequent fundraising letter from Chavez says, however, "big labor has a radical socialist agenda." And in the letter, Chavez recalls that after she was nominated, "members of the media were calling me Big Labor's Worst Nightmare. And they were right!" 

Linda Chavez (Anti-Labor, Hypocrisy, Criminal, Slavery) 

FACT: Linda Chavez-Thompson is nominated as Secretary of Labor. It is discovered that she has been using Guatemalan immigrant Marta Mercado as a house servant for two years, paying her about $14 per week, a total of $1,500 over that span. She withdraws her nomination. Chavez had led the charge against Clinton nominee Zoe Baird, who had hired an illegal immigrant as nanny and paid her prevailing rates. Chavez also is a foe of minimum wage laws. Elaine Chao, wife of Senator Mitch McConnell, replaces her. 

Eugene Scalia (Nepotism, Taxpayers Expense, Payback, Election 2000, Labor)

FACT: The New York Post reported last week that Eugene, the nominee for Labor Department attorney, will be up before the Health, Education and Labor Committee in September. However, Eugene didn’t quite get the free ride that Strom Jr. received. You see, Eugene face a tough time over some comments he made, "Ergonomics is quackery" - it's not like he’s ever had to actually do any hard work in his life before, so how would he know? Although it's lucky for him that his daddy was in charge of deciding who won last year's election, otherwise he probably wouldn't have been nominated at all.

COMMENT: It seems that affirmative action is a-okay with the GOP when you're talking about rich white men.