GOVERNMENT FUNDING BILL:
MIXED RESULTS FOR WORKERS

The mammoth funding bill that cleared the Democratic-run Congress in mid-December--and that GOP President George W. Bush signed Dec. 26--is a mixed bag for workers, according to union leaders and to a reading of the bill.

The $600 billion money bill also includes funds for Bush’s war in Iraq, with no strings attached, upsetting many workers and activist Democrats, who counted on the new Democratic-run 110th Congress to change the nation’s direction on the war.

Labor-related action in the legislation includes:

• No ban on the anti-worker president’s scheme to force rank-and-file unionists who volunteer to be union presidents, shop stewards and for other posts to file financial disclosure statements if there are possible conflicts of interest, That could force hundreds of thousands of unionists to disclose their personal finances, AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney said.
  
  “One of the casualties in the final bill was a move by the Democrats to stop a rank new directive from the Bush Labor Department that adds yet another debilitating burden to unions by requiring more than 100,000 workplace volunteers to report their run-of-the-mill consumer transactions to the federal government,” Sweeney explained.
  
  “The Labor Department failed to provide even an iota of justification for the new requirement, which can only harass and intimidate the worksite volunteers who are the heart of a healthy labor movement. Bush and the Senate Republicans yet again invoked their increasingly familiar no-holds-barred obstructionism and refused to back off, while the Democrats, to our great disappointment, did,” he added.
  
  
• Congress dropped another pro-worker provision: A House-approved ban on using any Transportation Department funding on construction projects that do not obey federal Davis-Bacon prevailing wage rules.
  
  
• But lawmakers also ordered Bush regime Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to “provide detailed reports on development and issuance of certain occupational safety standards that have remained on OSHA’s regulatory agenda without completion.”
  
  They include standards for exposure to beryllium and silica, confined space standards for construction workers and safety rules for cranes and derricks.
  
  
• Lawmakers eliminated money for the anti-worker president’s scheme to destroy worker protections at the 135,000-person Homeland Security Department. Federal employee unions have beaten Bush’s scheme in court, but he tried to get funding for it anyway in the money bill. “Through their agreement, congressional conferees prevented the Bush administration’s repeated attempts to deny employees of the department the right to collectively bargain by de-funding the controversial Max HR program,” said AFGE President John Gage.
  
  Congress also curbed Bush’s scheme to force contracting-out of government jobs, by eliminating the pro-privatization weight Bush’s OMB put on the scale when government workers had to compete against private firms for their jobs, he said.
  
  
• Teamsters President James Hoffa thanked lawmakers for banning Bush’s Transportation Department from spending any money to let unsafe Mexican trucks roam all U.S. roads.
  
  Bush wants to let trucks from 100 Mexican firms roam nationwide. Right now, all Mexican trucks are restricted to a zone within 20 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. His DOT instituted a pilot project to let trucks from selected firms rove every U.S. road, but Congress banned use of money for that scheme.
  
  “Congress just made driving safer by ensuring dangerous trucks from Mexico aren’t lurching along our highways like unguided missiles,” Hoffa said. “We expect Bush to obey the law and put a stop to this dangerous program as soon as it is signed into law,” Hoffa said. His union is also suing in court to stop the trucks.
  
  
• “We hoped for higher funding, but the numbers show lawmakers worked hard to make children winners in this battle. A greater investment in education is needed to provide public schools with the resources to ensure that all children have access to a quality public education and a chance to compete in a global economy,” Weaver said.

Other items include:

• An increase of $15 million for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement service for workplace enforcement against undocumented workers. The House didn’t want any extra money for enforcement--which includes controversial workplace raids that have angered the UFCW, among others--but the Senate put it in.
  
  
• $400 million for port security grants, which have been pushed by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Bush wanted zero. The bill also includes $11.5 million for bus security grants an $16 million for truck security grants.
  
  
• Two Fire Fighters’ assistance programs, which Bush wanted to cut heavily, get $750 million, close to this year’s funding. The money helps pay for full staffing at fire houses and also for emergency training for Fire Fighters and other first responders, especially against terror attacks.
  
  
• The Mine Workers got $2.2 million for a national project for “classroom and simulated rescue training for mine rescue teams.” Congress also told the Mine Safety and Health Administration to hire 17 more mine inspectors, to help make up for the huge shortfall in inspections exposed earlier this year.
  
  
• $82 million--Bush wanted virtually nothing--for the Bureau of International Labor Affairs and its campaign against child labor. The Labor Department’s Women’s Bureau gets $9.8 million, less than it got last year.