Workers Independent News - White House

Are U.S. Troops In Combat Legally Entitled To Higher Pay? - 05/23/07

Tue, 22 May 2007 17:14:53 -0700

Are the pay raises being proposed by the Bush Administration and the Democrats for soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan illegal? Arlen Parsa of online news site, The Daily Background, thinks so.

Jesse Russell spoke with Parsa about his findings.

Parsa said according to the Defense Authorization Act of 99 troops are required a raise of 3.8 percent not the 3 percent or 3.5 percent being floated by the President and Congress.

[Parsa1:] Basically the law says it has to be 0.5 percent more than the average increase in civilian wages. So the average increase for civilian wages for 2006 was 3.3 percent.

Cheney Sharpens His Boss' Veto Pen On Labor Law Reform - 02/16/07

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 17:57:30 -0800

As organized labor celebrated the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act of 2007 through the House Education and Labor Committee yesterday, Vice President Dick Cheney was busy preparing the President’s veto pen. Jesse Russell has more:

On Wednesday morning Vice President Dick Cheney took some time to speak before a business lobby group and used that opportunity to express the administration’s opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act.

[Cheney]: Our Administration rejects any attempt to short-circuit the rights of workers. We will defend their right to vote yes or no by secret ballot and their right to fair bargaining. H.R. 800 violates these principles, and if it is sent to the President, he will veto the bill.

High Gas Prices Protest To Bang Oil Drums At The White House - 06/30/06

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 19:23:57 -0700

By Doug Cunningham

The AFL-CIO is leading a protest against high gasoline prices today at the White House today. Jos Williams, President of the Washington D.C. area AFL-CIO, says working families are being hit hard by the high prices as oil companies gouge record profits.

[Jos Williams] : “What we are sayin’ to the Bush administration is that those people who put them in office – big oil barons – their day should come to an end. And this administration should be about people and not about profits.”

Air traffic controllers confront a Bush administration push to lower wages - 12/20/05

Mon, 19 Dec 2005 17:23:10 -0800

By Doug Cunningham

Air traffic controllers are confronting a Bush administration push to lower the wages of newly hired controllers. Ronald Reagan fired all 11,350 controllers when they went on strike in 1981. The union isn't likely to strike this time, but the Federal Aviation Administration does have the legal power to impose its last, best offer over union objections. And the two sides so far can't agree on a pay structure.

Bush administration implicated in producing propaganda - 10/03/05

Sun, 02 Oct 2005 13:42:01 -0700

By Jesse Russell

In a report released by the Government Accountability Office, the Bush administration has been implicated in disseminating "covert propaganda" in violation of a United States statutory ban. The report is the result of an investigation into contracts between commentator Armstrong Williams and the education department where Williams was paid to write newspaper columns and make television appearances promoting the No Child Left Behind Act. Also, the auditors called illegal the administrations use of government funds to hire a public relations firm for the purpose of analyzing news articles for the message "The Bush administration or the GOP is committed to education." The report says there is "no use for such information except for partisan political purposes." The Accountability Office report comes with no penalty, but federal law mandates that the violations be reported to Congress.

Labor leaders of Gulf Coast states to demand Davis-Bacon be reinstated

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 19:05:28 -0700

Labor leaders from the Gulf States of Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana will be holding a joint conference tomorrow to demand that President George W. Bush reinstate the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage Act. The law required that federal contractors’ not lower community construction wages less than $20,000 a year for skilled full-time work. In that region during clean-up government contractors have also received a pass on applying affirmative action standards for hiring and rules that stipulate the number of hours a truck driver can work have been lifted.

Bush robs suffering region of wages - 09/12/05

Sun, 11 Sep 2005 14:41:45 -0700

By Doug Cunningham

Katrina has taken everything from them and the Bush administration is now taking away the promise of jobs with good wages for workers who will rebuild the devastated gulf region. An executive order from Bush September 8th waives the Davis-Bacon Act - a law that guarantees the prevailing wage rate for construction jobs contracted by the federal government. The AFL-CIO wants Congress to reverse the Bush order. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says taking advantage of a national tragedy to get rid of wage protection for workers is nothing less than profiteering.
The AFL-CIO says this amounts to legalized looting of worker wages as they struggle to clean up toxic waste and rebuild their communities across the gulf region.

Antiwar mom who lost son in Iraq interrupting Bush's vacation - 08/08/05

Sun, 07 Aug 2005 15:05:43 -0700

By Doug Cunningham

Cindy Sheehan's son Casey was killed in Iraq. She wants U.S. troops home now. She's outraged that George W. Bush is calling the war a "noble cause". So outraged that she went to Crawford Texas and is camped there to interrupt Bush's vacation and confront him about his statement.

[Cindy Sheehan 1] : "I don't want him to use my son's name to continue the killing. I don't want him to use my family's sacrifice to continue the killing."

Sheehan says the war is immoral, based on horrendous lies and deceptions. And she knows Bush doesn't really care about those killed in Iraq based on her own meeting with him after her son Casey's death.

Forest Service to begin privatizing public information services

Fri, 06 May 2005 20:59:50 -0700

On the heels of making a major announcement that US Forests could be opened to roads and logging, the U.S. Forest Service says it may start privatizing its public information staff. One hundred positions could be farmed out to private public relations firms pending a June 30th review. It's a sign of things to come as the Bush administration has began pushing it's Competitive Sourcing initiative. The program would make hundreds of jobs in the agency available for contract bidding. According to the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility the Forest Service spent $113,000 on a campaign to convince the public to accept plans for increased logging in California's Sierra Nevada's.

EPI: Economic policy, not demographics, is driving what's happening to the social security fund

Tue, 26 Apr 2005 06:59:10 -0700

A new report released this morning by the Economic Policy Institute suggests that economic policy has created the Social Security shortfall, not changing demographics.

[Josh Bivens]: Inequality, high wage earners seeing much bigger raises than everyone else is leading to this erosion in the tax base of social security.

Economist says social security pales in comparison to the federal budget deficit

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 08:54:35 -0800

Bush administration officials have pounced on a recent report from the Social Security trustees that predicts problems in the program starting in 2017. But according to Max Sawicky, an economist for the Economic Policy Institute, the supposed problem with Social Security pales when compared budget deficit created by the administration's tax cuts.

[Sawicky1]: The overwhelmingly major factor in deficits currently and in the long-term is the tax cuts enacted since 2000.

Schiavo case highlights state health care problems, hypocrisy of Bush administration according to Physicians for a National Heal

Wed, 23 Mar 2005 10:58:57 -0800

While the country debates whether or not Congress overstepped it's boundaries by taking on the Terry Schiavo case, some organizations are saying it highlights a deeper problem with the state of healthcare for working people and the hypocrisy of the current administration. Dr. Quentin Young is the national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program,

[Young1]: This woman is alive because of Medicaid, which the Administration - which convenes the Congress - is trying to reduce sharply and Congress - happily - overruled this cut. But if the administration had it's way, the money that is keeping her alive would disappear and make all of this activity moot.

Union Support for Bush's Air-Pollution Legislation

Wed, 16 Feb 2005 07:26:41 -0800

Organized labor supporting Bush? On Bush's air-pollution legislation that unlikely occurrence is happening. Bill Cunningham of Unions for Jobs and The Environment says a group of union presidents from the United Mine Workers, Teamsters, Boilermakers, Electrical Workers, Utility Workers and the Transportation/Communications International Union among others are calling on Democrats on the Senate Environment Committee to back the Bush plan because it¹s a reasonable reduction of air pollution while still protecting jobs.

[Bill Cunningham]: "We're supporting the bill because it calls for rather dramatic reductions in pollutants and creates jobs at the some time. I don't know if you could say that's in support of the Bush administration - well, you might say that. But basically we're calling for rather dramatic reductions and we think that's the responsible thing to do."

President Bush Proposes Slashing Amtrak Funding

Thu, 10 Feb 2005 08:25:31 -0800

In his new budget proposal, President George W. Bush has completely eliminated funding for Amtrak.

[Buckley]: The Bush administration has long been out to dismantle Amtrak. But this is really a new low where they have come right out and zeroed out it’s budget.

Michael Buckley is Communications Director for the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department. He says the TTD believes privatizing the railway is a bad decision.

[Buckley2]: It’s very reckless and irresponsible policy choice. It would put 22,000 workers out of jobs, it would strand millions of passengers across the country, it would send many more cars to already congested highways.

AFL-CIO Continues Fight Against Privatization of Social Security

Thu, 03 Feb 2005 08:53:51 -0800

As President Bush brings his social security privatization pitch to midwest states today - including North and South Dakota and Nebraska - the AFL-CIO is joining other progressive groups to rally against it. AFL-CIO midwest representative Shelley Seeberg says that draining money from social security into private accounts undermines social security while creating as much as $2 trillion more in federal debt. Seeberg says that not only does
Bush's irresponsible scheme not strengthen social security, but it undermines it.

[Shelley Seeberg]: "Well the truth of the matter is under the Bush plan social security would run out of money fourteen years sooner than is now expected. So essentially, this makes social security funding problems worse, not better."