United Steelworkers Union Disses Palin and McCain

While Sarah Palin has taken every opportunity to mention that her husband is a steelworker and a member of the United Steelworker’s Union, her running mate, John McCain has an abysmal record when it comes to the representation of labor rights.  The United Steelworkers Union (USW), as it turns out, is not all that pleased to hear Palin, the woman McCain calls his “political soul mate,” evoke her husband’s participation in their organization as a political maneuver.

 

USW President Leo Gerard recently noted in the USW blog that “It is important to realize that while the governor’s husband is a member of a union, this does not automatically qualify her for an on-the-job training program to become a heartbeat away from the presidency.”

 

Wednesday evening Gerard demanded that Palin “stop using the USW as a prop.” Noting McCain’s opposition to the top priorities on USW’s agenda, Gerard asked Palin: “Are you with McCain – and against workers – on these issues? If so, you need to stop using your husband’s membership in the USW as a prop….”

It is easy to see why the USW and most other unions, for that matter, oppose McCain, since he has continually voted against labor interests during his tenure in congress.  Back in 1994, for instance, McCain voted against a bill which would protect workers against being replaced or fired for going on strike. 

 

In 2007 he voted to block the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier to unionize, and once condemned unions in general as being “serious excesses” and said “government workers are crippled by union contracts.”

 

McCain also voted against the minimum wage hike in 2007, and showed, once again that he is a social misanthrope, by voting against the ENDA amendment that would protect workers against sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace.

 

While McCain and Palin continue to present themselves as maverick reformer candidates who will clean up Washington and improve all our lives, it is another illusion.  What the Republicans actually promise those of us who work for a living, are fewer protections, lower wages, and less security in the workplace.  In fact, if John McCain and Sarah Palin get their way, we will continue the downward spiral we are in right now.  What is new or reformed about that?

Sources: Alternet, Ali, Think Progress, 9/3/08, USW Blog, 9/3/08

 

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