AFL-CIO´s Sweeney: Outsourcing must stop -
Wednesday, January 18, 2006 11:45:09 PM
afxpress.com
AFL-CIO's Sweeney: Outsourcing must stop - UPDATE 1 WASHINGTON (AFX) -- The outsourcing of U.S. jobs to foreign shores and other business trends threaten to do in the middle class, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said Wednesday
In a speech at the National Press Club, the head of the umbrella labor group said the addition of new workers from China, India and the former Soviet Union has helped to double the global labor force since 1985. "And in the absence of new rules to prevent it, corporations have pitted the new workers against American workers in a merciless race to the bottom," Sweeney said. "The result has been a perfect storm of outsourcing, offshoring, tax evasion, layoffs, work speedups, wage cuts, health-care cuts, pension cuts, shifting risks, bashing unions and shortchanging communities." "It's a storm that has swamped the boats of middle-class workers and destroyed the frail crafts of ethnic and immigrant workers," he said
Sweeney said organized labor was prepared to fight back, despite a division in the union movement that has seen several major unions leave the AFL-CIO to form a new organization focused on increasing spending to recruit new members
The AFL-CIO's member unions represent around 9 million workers nationwide. Sweeney said he is committed to re-unifying the labor movement, but emphasized that dissident unions and the AFL-CIO remain on the same page on many issues
"We will, hopefully, be working together politically.?And we also will be trying to coordinate and trying to respect jurisdictions and so on in terms of organizing activity," Sweeney said
Sweeney dismissed notions that the split would undermine organized labor's ability to turn out voters to support Democratic congressional candidates in the 2006 midterm elections, predicting Democrats would regain control of both the House and Senate
Meanwhile, the AFL-CIO will continue a state-by-state campaign aimed at improving worker pay and benefits. On that front, Sweeney touted the Maryland legislature's approval of a law aimed at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that requires large companies to provide health insurance to workers
Sweeney said the move underscored labor's muscle in what promises to be a nationwide fight over health-care issues
"You saw the first crisp punch in that fight when we overrode Gov. [Robert] Ehrlich's veto of our Fair Share Health Care legislation in Maryland," Sweeney said |
