3-08-05, 9:08 am

From ILCA

PRIVATIZATION LOSES GROUND--More and more Americans disapprove of President George W. Bush's Social Security privatization scheme, according to recent polls.

A new USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll released Feb. 28 showed in late February, 56 percent of those surveyed disapproved of Bush's privatization plan, up from a 48 percent disapproval in early February. An Associated Press poll showed just 39 percent support for Bush's plan, which cuts guaranteed benefits and drives up the federal deficit. Meanwhile, some 200 protestors greeted Bush in Westfield, N.J., March 4 when he held another in a series of his closed-door, 'town-hall' meetings with a handpicked audience to discuss his plans to privatize Social Security. Working families and their allies are circulating petitions urging members of Congress to oppose Social Security privatization. Download the petition at: .

PRIVATIZATION DOESN'T BOOST SOLVENCY--The National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) says Bush's plan to privatize Social Security does nothing to improve the program's solvency, as acknowledged by the White House. 'To the extent that such plans would shift funds from scheduled Social Security taxes to personal accounts, they deplete funds that are needed to pay benefits to today's beneficiaries and those who will become beneficiaries in the near future,' said Virginia Reno, NASI vice president of income security. The report, 'Options to Balance Social Security Funds Over the Next 75 Years,' can be downloaded at: .

AFRICAN AMERICANS OPPOSE PRIVATIZATION--Fully 89 percent of African Americans say Social Security should be protected as a guaranteed benefit and not privatized, according to a new poll conducted by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies with Rock the Vote and AARP. Civil rights advocates, such as the NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus, oppose Bush's plan to privatize Social Security, noting a 2003 Government Accountability Office report showing African Americans and Latinos, because of higher disability rates and lower lifetime earnings, tend to receive greater benefits relative to Social Security taxes than whites. For more information, visit: .

SENATE CONSIDERS MINIMUM WAGE--Senate Democrats are lining up behind a proposal by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) to increase the federal minimum wage from its current $5.15 an hour to $7.25 in three steps over 26 months. To divert attention from their long-standing opposition to meaningful minimum wage increases, Senate Republicans, with Bush administration support, have offered a $1.10 an hour increase with several anti-worker provisions. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) has coupled the increase with a provision to end the 40-hour workweek and replace it with an 80-hour, two-week work period. That would weaken overtime protections for those who remain eligible for overtime after the Bush administration gutted the Fair Labor Standards Act's overtime protections in 2004. Santorum's proposal would deny minimum wage, overtime and equal pay protections to as many as 10 million workers and would nullify state law protections for tipped workers, allowing their employers to pay them as little as $2.13 per hour. Both proposals will be offered as amendments to bankruptcy legislation (S. 256) this week. ORGANIZING, POLITICS TOP VEGAS AGENDA--The AFL-CIO Executive Council acted on core issues, including organizing and political mobilization, critical to the future of America's union movement and working families at its meeting in Las Vegas March 1-3. 'Unless we change the anti-worker policies that are destroying good jobs and stop the forces that are rolling back workers' rights, we can't win gains for workers. A long-term plan for greater political and legislative mobilization is essential to strengthen and build the labor movement,' said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. The meeting was part of a process the union movement has been undergoing to evaluate current challenges and determine how to respond to strengthen the movement for the future. The AFL-CIO Executive Committee, with representatives of the AFL-CIO's largest unions, has recommended a program that combines raising new resources for organizing with urgently needed investment in long-term political mobilization. The Executive Council recommended the July AFL-CIO convention adopt a historic plan to improve the ability of state labor federations and local labor councils to carry out organizing and political mobilization. The plan calls for establishing state strategic planning and budgeting systems; setting accountability standards for state and local councils; ensuring support from affiliate unions; amalgamating central labor councils where needed to form larger labor bodies with greater political mobilization capacity; and maintaining or establishing local councils as a political voice for workers in communities. The council also awarded Mikhail Volynets, president of the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine, the 2004 George Meany/Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award; supported New York City's bid to host the 2012 Olympics; endorsed a bill of citizens' media rights to ensure competitive, diverse and independent media; and adopted resolutions supporting full voting rights and protection of workplace rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers. For information on the union movement's efforts to build strength for the future and to share your ideas, visit: .

HIGH PRODUCTIVITY = FEWER JOBS--Although the U.S. economy is growing, employment is stagnant as employers find ways to increase production without adding workers, according to two reports released last week. A survey by The Business Roundtable, a group of CEOs of large companies, shows the percentage of employers that expected to decrease the number of employees in the next six months jumped to 18 percent, compared with 12 percent in the last survey in September 2004. The Roundtable attributed the slow pace of hiring to increased productivity, which allows a company to produce more with fewer employees. Meanwhile, a record 2.7 million temporary and contract workers were on the job in the last quarter of 2004, according to the American Staffing Association.

MOST AMERICANS AGAINST CAFTA--A new national poll shows a majority of Americans across all political parties, including a majority of Latinos, oppose the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). The survey, released March 1 by , shows 74 percent oppose CAFTA when asked if they would favor or oppose the agreement if it reduced consumer prices but caused job losses. Overall, 51 percent of Americans opposed the deal and only 32 percent supported it. The Bush administration is expected to send the trade deal to Congress later this year. CAFTA lacks protections for workers' right to form unions and safe work conditions. If approved, CAFTA would drop tariffs between the United States, six Central American countries and the Dominican Republic. The agreement will leave workers, family farmers, the environment and communities more vulnerable, while enriching and empowering corporate elites. For more information, visit: .

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