Trade, worker rights, retirement security top lobbying topics for Steelworkers

WASHINGTON—Unfair trade treaties, retirement security, threats to workers’ rights and U.S. democracy, the GOP Trump administration and the U.S. Supreme Court topped Steelworkers’ lobbying topics at their legislative conference in D.C. this week.

Oh, and politics got in there, too, as a parade of pro-worker senators, all up for re-election this fall, marched to the podium in a sun-splashed Capitol Hill park on May 23. So did several representatives, and they’re seeking new terms, too.

The lawmakers thanked the union delegates – who hailed from as far west as Hawaii to as far east as the U.S. Virgin Islands — for past support, re-supported pro-USW issues and predicted victory in November. But that will come only if the several hundred union activists exhort their colleagues at home to really turn out the votes this fall, virtually all of them said.

But when they weren’t talking politics, Steelworkers and the speakers spent their time denouncing so-called “free trade” treaties that trash workers, plus what they say is unfair trade with China, and the threats to democracy at home coming from the GOP.

New Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., who owed much of his upset victory margin in a special election to Steelworker mobilization in key industrial cities, thanked the union, pledged future support – and predicted his win is a forecast of good things to come. “This is not the end, this is the beginning – throughout the South and most of America,” Jones said.

Several senators, including Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Bernie Sanders of Vermont – who got the biggest cheer and a “Bernie! Bernie!” chant – brought up threats to workers’ retirement, including GOP plans to cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Retirement was also a big topic for the delegates. Many congressional visits were to laud supportive lawmakers, virtually all of them Democrats. The reception they got from Congress’ ruling Republicans was another matter.

“We love him,” Local 1693 Recording Secretary James Campbell said of Rep. John Yarmouth, D-Kent., the sole Dem in the state’s delegation. “We’ll stop in and thank him.”

“Retirement security is really important,” added Catherine Houston, the union’s regional Rapid Response coordinator for 11 western states, plus Alaska and Hawaii. Lawmakers “have to understand” Social Security “is a benefit workers paid into. It’s solvency level is 71 years, if we don’t rob it from the people. We have a lot of retirees in District 12 dependent on this.”

That message got through to one of the youngest attendees, Jarrett Wa’a, a 20-something millennial refinery worker from Honolulu, said Houston.

“He was saying how we have to give people an education about the blood, sweat and tears” shed to win Social Security, pensions and workers’ rights, including the right to organize, Houston said.

That in turn was a big topic of the parade of speakers, including Sanders, Tina Smith of Minnesota, Ohio’s Sherrod Brown and Pennsylvanian Bob Casey. All four face voters this fall.

Sanders told the crowd he just reintroduced the Workplace Democracy Act, which would write card-check recognition of unions into U.S. labor law. Ruling Republicans are trying to take unions away, regardless of workers’ wishes, he said. He wants to go the other way.

“Corporate America has been at war against workers trying to form a union,” Sanders said. “That’s why we introduced the Workplace Democracy Act. It says, very simply, ‘If 50 percent plus one want a union, they get a union.”

He added that instead of cutting Social Security to help pay for the GOP’s $1.5 trillion tax cut for the rich, “we should increase Social Security.”

“We have to stand together to protect the middle class and tell the Koch brothers and the other billionaires, ‘Enough is enough!’” about their anti-worker, anti-union crusades.

Brown struck a similar note, and both said union strength is vital to preserving democracy. “We’ve seen corporate profits go up, productivity go up, yet your wages are flat. So it’s important you tell your story” with those points to solons and staffers, he said. “And the right-wingers and right to workers across the U.S. are always trying to put you out of business.”

“There’s a lot to be pissed off about,” added Minnesota’s Smith, who seeks election for the remainder of Al Franken’s unexpired term. “But I’m standing with Bernie for raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and against forced arbitration.” Legislation is needed to counteract the anti-worker forced arbitration ruling which the Supreme Court handed down on May 21, the conference’s opening day.

Unfair and job-killing trade treaties, starting with NAFTA, also were among the unionists’ causes. In between introducing speakers, Steelworkers President Leo Gerard denounced the treaties for costing U.S. manufacturing jobs.

“My first big vote” after his initial U.S. House election 26 years ago “was against NAFTA,” said Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas. When that NAFTA vote occurred, Green’s old district was 62 percent Hispanic, and analysts thought he’d be pro-NAFTA as a result. His constituents weren’t and he wasn’t. He’s voted against NAFTA and all other “free trade” pacts since.

“They were worried about their jobs no matter what their ethnicity was,” Green said.

​Video: Rapid Response: We’re Not Stopping. USW