LITTLE SUPPORT REMAINS FOR BUSH'S SOCIAL SECURITY AGENDA

■ The more that Americans are learning about the president’s risky plan for reforming Social Security, the less they like it. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released in late June found that more than twice as many respondents disapproved of President Bush’s handling of Social Security than approved of it: 64 percent to 31 percent, respectively.

While this is good news for those who oppose the president’s plan for private accounts, which critics say will cut benefits and swell the federal budget deficit by about $5 trillion over the next 20 years, AFT president Edward J. McElroy cautions that the threat to Social Security remains, and organized labor and its allies must remain vigilant.

The AFL-CIO’s Alliance for Retired Americans has been a leader in the fight to defeat President Bush’s plan. In June and July, the alliance’s Social Security “Truth Truck” made 57 stops in 27 states. The flatbed truck traveled from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Ore., carrying more than 1 million anti-privatization messages to the home districts of members of Congress.

“Our Truth Truck tours have been a great success, enabling thousands of seniors to let their members of Congress know they are against the reckless dismantling of Social Security,” says George J. Kourpias, president of the alliance, a national grass-roots organization representing more than 3 million seniors and retirees.

Under the president’s plan, benefits for those making $37,000 in 2005 would be cut by $4,500 a year; those making $59,000 in 2005 would see their benefits slashed by $9,000 a year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP).

Members of Congress who don’t want to go down with President Bush’s Social Security privatization plan next Election Day are abandoning the sinking ship.

Unfortunately, privatization diehards, including Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), and Reps. Sam Johnson (R-Texas), Jim McCrery (R-La.), Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Clay Shaw (R-Fla.) still are trying to advance the Bush plan. They are touting legislation they have introduced in their respective chambers as an effort to stop Congress from using the Social Security surplus to finance government programs. However, one of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Johnson, has labeled the legislation “an achievable first step” toward private accounts.

“It shows that they have not given up on the privatization of Social Security,” says Bill Cunningham, associate director of the AFT department of legislation. The proposed plan would increase the federal deficit and undermine the Social Security system, he says.

The plan introduced in the Senate would fund private accounts with Social Security’s current annual surpluses, shifting an estimated $1.1 trillion from Social Security to private accounts over 10 years, according to CBPP.

■ Nine months after the December 2004 tsunami that devastated South Asia, reconstruction work and other assistance and support from the international trade union community is well under way. With contributions from AFT members, affiliates and others to the union’s tsunami disaster relief fund, the AFT has sent $100,000 to Education International (EI) for relief efforts, and additional contributions of $40,000 each are being sent to Public Services International (PSI) and the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center.

Education International, a federation of more than 345 organizations representing teachers and education personnel around the world, is focusing its efforts on Sri Lanka and the Aceh province of Indonesia, the two regions hit hardest by the tsunami. While much remains to be done, EI reports, the process of reconstructing schools has begun.

Both EI and PSI are participating in the Global Unions Tsunami Solidarity project in cooperation with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the Global Union Federations to coordinate relief efforts and funding.

■ AFT members shopping for back-to-school supplies this summer are invited to sign a pledge that they will not purchase supplies at Wal-Mart in support of a nationwide union campaign to convince the retail giant to become a responsible employer and corporate citizen.

In August, AFT activists joined thousands of other unionists, civic leaders and elected officials in the official launch of the “Send Wal-Mart Back to School” campaign. The campaign is asking teachers, school staff and parents to sign a pledge to buy their back-to-school supplies somewhere other than Wal-Mart. (To sign the pledge, go to www.unionvoice.org/campaign/walmart_petition.)

Part of the campaign also involves the online community, and the AFT has almost 1,500 “e-Activists” who have signed the union’s online pledge before the official kickoff. More than 17,500 AFL-CIO members also have signed the pledge.

In the past year alone, Wal-Mart has repeatedly violated child labor laws, abused sweatshop labor in Third World countries, and exploited immigrant labor.  Wal-Mart also has a record of discrimination against 2 million female workers and has failed to provide company healthcare coverage to more than 600,000 employees.

AFL-CIO convention delegates who met in Chicago this past July adopted a resolution in support of Wal-Mart workers and endorsed campaigns to change Wal-Mart’s corporate behavior. In 2004, the AFT convention adopted a “Shop Union, Not Wal-Mart” resolution pledging similar support to Wal-Mart workers.

■ California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s attack on public employees heats up with a November special election that includes three Schwarzenegger-backed initiatives to weaken the rights of new teachers, cripple school funding and shut public employees out of the political dialogue.

Even though votes have yet to be cast or counted, it’s already clear that “the Governator” has been hurt by his push for the costly ballot battle and willingness to align himself with right-wing interests seeking to privatize and weaken public services.

A poll released this summer by the Survey and Policy Research Institute at San Jose State University shows that the governor’s support continues to plummet, while support is climbing for unions he continues to attack in a ballot battle that will cost Californians an estimated $45 million to
$80 million.

Much of this shift in public opinion undoubtedly reflects the aggressive grass-roots campaign undertaken by the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) and its affiliates, working as part of a coalition of labor unions that represent more than 2 million teachers, firefighters, nurses and other healthcare workers.

The Alliance for a Better California has spearheaded counter ballot initiatives on prescription drug costs and other issues that will help guarantee a sizable and representative turnout of California voters in November. In late May, the alliance staged massive rallies around the state to protest Schwarzenegger’s ill-conceived and dangerous agenda.

These Action Day demonstrations drew more than 10,000 protesters in Los Angeles and 20,000 demonstrators in Sacramento, with several other smaller demonstrations spread across the state.

“A lot of folks who voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger thought they were getting someone who told the truth and who couldn’t be bought,” CFT president and AFT vice president Mary Bergan reminded protesters in Los Angeles. “Instead, it turns out they elected a guy who doesn’t know how to govern in a representative democracy. He thinks it’s OK to hold costly, wasteful elections whenever you can’t convince the Legislature that your half-baked ideas should become law.”