WORDS DO HURT -- Senate Majority Leader-in-waiting Trent Lott's (R-Miss.) recent comments about Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist presidential bid were "shockingly out of step with the fundamental values of American society and unacceptable for a national leader. An individual who could make those statements cannot lead the United States Senate," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. At Thurmond's 100th birthday ceremony, Lott said if Thurmond had won his presidential bid, the nation "wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years."

JOBLESSNESS RISING -- The nation's unemployment rate spiked to an eight-year high of 6 percent in November, and the American economy lost 40,000 jobs last month. Late last month, the Republican-led House of Representatives adjourned for the year without taking any steps to help the hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers whose unemployment benefits expired on Dec. 28. Jobless workers and union activists are mobilizing to urge Congress to extend aid for long-term unemployed workers. Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Bush administration failed to pass a bipartisan Senate bill that would have extended emergency unemployment benefits through March 2003. As a result, 830,000 long-term jobless workers exhausted benefits three days after Christmas and another 95,000 lost benefits every week thereafter. The failure to extend benefits came as the national unemployment rate hit its highest level in eight years. "The Bush administration is failing individuals and the country as a whole by not extending the emergency program while the unemployment emergency persists," AFL- CIO President John Sweeney said.

NO STAMP OF APPROVAL -- Postal Workers President William Burrus called the Bush administration's appointment of a Commission on the U.S. Postal Service "a thinly veiled attempt to dismantle the Postal Service as we know it" and charged the administration is responding to requests from Republican Party extremists and large corporate mailers. The commission is part of the Bush administration's continuing effort to privatize many federal services. No postal workers or union representatives were appointed to the commission. Burrus warned that universal service, uniform rates and six-day delivery are at risk, as well as service to rural areas, inner cities and anywhere else not deemed profitable by large volume mailers and pre-sort companies.

THE TIME IS NOW -- On Dec. 12, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and AFL-CIO President John Sweeney urged the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to quickly adopt a proposed rule that will require disclosure of mutual fund proxy votes. The mutual fund industry opposes the rule. Workers' jobs and investors' savings hang in the balance in these [shareholder proposal] elections, but the law blocks us from knowing how the mutual funds use our money," Sweeney said.

WHAT IS FIDELITY HIDING? -- Working families stepped up the pressure on Fidelity Investments, the world's largest mutual fund, to account for how it uses its huge shareholder voting power -- much of it gained through the assets it manages for union pension funds. In demonstrations in more than 20 cities and at Fidelity's Boston headquarters Dec. 4, workers demanded the company drop its opposition to proposed U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules that would require mutual funds to disclose their votes at annual shareholder meetings. In response to a petition filed in December 2000 by the AFL-CIO, the SEC has proposed new rules to require mutual fund companies to disclose how they vote their equity holdings. The call for Fidelity to disclose its proxy votes is part of the union movement's No More Business As Usual campaign, which seeks to improve corporate accountability and provide retirement security following recent corporate scandals. For more information, visit www.alfcio.org/fidelitydisclose.

NOT ON OUR BACKS -- With New York City facing what city officials say will be a $2.7 billion deficit, working families rallied Dec. 16 to send a message to the city's government that it cannot balance the budget on the backs of poor, working and middle-class New Yorkers. The marchers called on Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) not to increase fees for subway fares and school tuitions, cut services or contract out city jobs.

FAMILY VALUES? -- The Bush administration wants to repeal a rule that allows states to use unemployment compensation funds to provide benefits to workers who must leave their jobs to care for newborn or newly adopted children. No state has implemented such a program. For an administration that claims to support family values, withdrawing this policy "is a crass and cynical slap in the face" of workers, said Judith Lichtman, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families.

ENRON EAST -- President George W. Bush's decision to lavish bonuses worth as much as $25,000 on political appointees while slicing off a quarter of the pay adjustment Congress recommended for regular federal workers is another example of the administration's tilt towards the rich, AFGE President Bobby Harnage Sr. said. "This move is another demonstration of the Enron Syndrome that permeates this administration -- one set of rules and numbers for the elite and another set for the rest of us," he said. Meanwhile, Bush announced Dec. 9 that he will nominate John W. Snow, CEO of Richmond, Va.-based CSX Corp., as Treasury secretary. Last year the AFL-CIO criticized the forgiveness of loans from CSX to company executives, including Snow, to purchase company stock.

THE REAL SMALLPOX RISK -- As President Bush prepares to ask a half million health-care workers to volunteer for smallpox vaccinations, SEIU leaders are warning that without better protections, the proposed plan could put hospital patients, caregivers and the public at risk. "President Bush must put better safeguards in place before anyone is asked to volunteer for the smallpox vaccine," says Diane Sosne, RN, national co-chair of the SEIU Nurse Alliance. Union leaders want a plan to ensure that particularly vulnerable people are not given the vaccine and to educate workers about the risks. They also are seeking a fair compensation system to assist anyone who is injured by receiving the vaccine or coming into contact with someone who received it.

VICTORIES FOR EQUITY -- The Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) is hailing a landmark New York state law, effective Jan. 1, that requires insurers to provide coverage for women's health needs -- including access to contraceptives. For more information, visit www.cluw.org. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood Federation of America announced Dec. 5 that it successfully negotiated a settlement of charges against Dow Jones & Company by three Dow Jones employees, some of them members of Communications Workers of America Local 1096. As a result of the settlement, all Dow Jones employees and their dependents will have insurance coverage for prescription contraceptives.

GENDER NEUTRAL -- The City of Boston and the Cook County (Ill.) Board of Commissioners are the latest jurisdictions to enact ordinances that protect residents based on gender identity from all forms of discrimination, including employment. The new laws -- which now exist in 41 cities, seven counties and the states of Rhode Island and Minnesota -- are designed to extend civil rights protections to include transgender and transsexual people.


TEAMSTER NEWS STORIES

CAPITOL IMPROVEMENT -- Custodial workers at the U.S. Capitol Building voted to join Teamsters Local 246 last week. The 40 housekeepers, floor cleaners, supply and inventory clerks and facility workers join Capitol Police civilian employees as part of the Washington, D.C., local.

IBT LAUNCHES CORPORATE PROGRAM -- Teamsters fund trustees met in Washington, D.C., last month to plan an agenda focusing on using the union's $100 billion in pension assets to reform corporate governance and increase money manager accountability. "Together we can influence corporate behavior and make companies more accountable to shareholders and members," IBT President James P. Hoffa told the trustees.

CLEAN AIR, SAFE ROADS -- Teamsters and a coalition of labor, environmental and public interest groups are seeking an emergency order to prevent the Bush administration from opening U.S. roads and highways to polluting diesel trucks from Mexico. The group asked the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to bar the trucks until the administration completes a thorough environmental review of the trucks' impact on air quality. The Bush administration announced Nov. 27 it was lifting the moratorium on the Mexican trucks, although the same court has yet to rule on a suit filed in May seeking the environmental review. More than 30,000 Mexican trucks, including many egregious polluters, could enter the United States as a result of the administration's decision to admit them as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

FREIGHT TALKS -- Teamsters negotiators exchanged national contract proposals Dec. 5 with representatives of freight management companies in preparations for talks that began Dec. 16. "We will be seeking fair compensation for our members, along with job, pension and health security," said Phil Young, co-chair of the IBT negotiating committee. The national master freight agreement covers 65,000 workers nationwide and expires March 31, 2003.