|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
     Current Issue Highlights Highlights Archive             Get to know your Business Agent today!  Find out how the union makes a difference on the job. |
Newsline: May 2001 "WORKERS" ON PARADE When's a Worker Not a Worker? When They're a Lobbyist in Costume When the Republican leadership held a news conference in Washington to promote the Bush Administration's $1.6 trillion tax cut plan, they talked about how wonderful the cuts would be for working people. Standing behind the leaders at the conference was a whole gang of working people: in hard hats, in food store clerk smocks, in farm overalls, you name it. Problem is, an awful lot of these "working people" were lobbyists for business groups, wearing costumes to look like "real workers." Slate magazine and the Washington Post both came across and published a memo from the National Association of Manufacturers that called on the business community to "deliver bodies" to the news conference to make it look as if there was real worker support for the Bush plan. "WE DO NEED BODIES," declared the internal memo. "They must be DRESSED DOWN, appear to be REAL WORKER types, etc. We plan to have hard hats for people to wear. Other groups are providing waiters/waitresses and other types of workers." The memo said the requirements were set by House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and his staff. The Post reported that one of the faces in the crowd was the NAM's own political director, Fred Nichols, sporting a "'Farm Credit' hat, a striped rugby shirt and olive green slacks." On most days, the newspaper noted, Nichols can be found in a suit and tie. As to the tax plan and its benefits for workers, the AFL-CIO says 60 percent of the cuts would go to the richest 10 percent of the nation's households, with only 13 percent going to the bottom 60 percent. |
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
 |
|||||
| |||||