USW Members Urge Congress to Say No to CAFTA

Over 600 United Steelworkers members attending the USW legislative and Industrial Union Council (IUC) conference converged on Washington, D.C. May 9-10 to urge Congress not to privatize Social Security, take action on rising health care costs, vote no on the Central American Free Trade  Agreement, support the Employee Free Choice Act and protect the 40-hour workweek.

USW delegates comprised the largest delegation at the IUC conference, which drew 1,200 participants.

USW President Leo Gerard gave a preview of the legislative issues delegates would learn more about and lobby on during the next two days.

Telling delegates that “Social Security isn’t and shouldn’t be some high risk animal,” Gerard suggested that the program could be fixed by increasing the cap on income subjected to the Social Security

tax to “some number like $200,000.”

Social Security is not only a retirement program, as USW local 6-154 member Al Dunnagan can attest. “My father was on Social Security disability for years because of his blindness,” said Dunnagan. “I had received benefits as a child because my father was disabled. Without his Social Security, I don’t see how he could have survived. When I was younger it helped because my mother wasn’t working.”

Real Crisis in Health Care

“If you want to talk about a real crisis, talk about health care,” said Gerard.

“In America, the U.S. spends $5,267 for each man, woman and child. That still leaves 45 million without health care. In Canada it is $2,931 and every single person is covered from birth to death.”

Pharmaceutical worker Daryl Bailey, a member of USW local 2-86, asks why the U.S. gives millions of dollars worth of medicine to other countries but can’t give a discount on drugs to its own people. He said his mother, a retired nurse, spends an extra $300-400 every two months for her health care.

Armed with statistics and background information on the key issues from legislative briefings and workshops, the delegates lobbied Capitol Hill. Many spoke with legislative aides, but some were able

to get an audience with their senators or representatives, like a delegation from Pennsylvania who met with Sen. Rick Santorum (R).

USW Rep. Steve Raysely said Santorum responded to one question about Social Security by saying that if people wanted to make the program solvent they should have more children.

After their lobbying, the industrial workers attended a “Good Jobs, No CAFTA” rally. Over the past four years over 2.7 million manufacturing jobs have disappeared. CAFTA will only be a repeat of NAFTA, say opponents, with corresponding job loss, increased poverty and inequality in Central America and weakening of public health and environmental laws.

Combating CAFTA

“If the free-traders keep having their way, America won’t have the ability to innovate, manufacture, or even afford to buy imports,” said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka.

Shon Jones, former president of PACE local 4-836, told how a former coworker, John Sonnier, became a victim of NAFTA. He and Sonnier were laid off from A. Schulman, Inc., a maker of plastic pellets for auto industry parts, when it moved to Mexico in 2003. Sonnier could not find another factory job, so he started a home vinyl siding business. On April 14, 2005 Sonnier died of a heart attack after trying

to keep his business alive.

“The only insurance he had was a small life insurance policy that was hardly enough to bury him,” said Jones. “If John would have been able to keep his job at A. Schulman, his wife would have had insurance benefits to take care of her and the kids.”