Rep. Tom Lantos Pledges Continued Support for Labor

San Francisco Labor Council Executive Director Tim Paulson, San Mateo County Central Labor Council Executive Secretary-Treasurer Shelley Kessler, and Congressmember Tom Lantos.

The San Mateo County Central Labor Council hosted a breakfast conversation with Congressmember Tom Lantos October 8.

Rep. Lantos was introduced by San Mateo County Central Labor Council Executive Secretary-Treasurer Shelley Kessler as a long-time ally of labor. Kessler said that during his 27 years in Congress, Lantos had walked picket lines with striking janitors, intervened in labor disputes to pressure companies like Safeway to respect workers’ rights and sponsored important legislation like the Employee Free Choice Act. Lantos has a 100 percent voting record in support of labor.

Rep. Lantos said that the labor movement in San Mateo County was the reason he was first elected in 1980. “In the Reagan landslide in 1980, pro-labor Congress members went down to defeat all over the United States—except for San Mateo County,” Lantos noted. “It was the largest turnover of pro-labor congressmembers ever.” He said that while he was a political unknown running against an entrenched, anti-labor Republican, the labor movement decided he could win and worked hard to elect him.

“It was the one bit of good news for pro-labor candidates,” he said.

“I’m profoundly conscious of the fact that without labor’s energetic and committed campaign, I would not have begun my long Congressional career,” Lantos said.

The Congressman distributed a list of his “Key Votes for Working Families in the 110th Congress” that included his support for an increase in the federal minimum wage, which passed and became law last May. He said that while many of the pro-labor bills he voted for have passed, some still await Senate action or could be vetoed.

“We [Democrats] have a 30 vote margin in the House, but we need more to override a veto,” he said.

One of Lantos’ key votes was for the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP). [See article on page 1]. Commenting on Bush’s veto of the legislation, Lantos said, “I thought I knew what the Bush Administration was like, but this veto of S-CHIP boggles the mind.” He said that while Bush said the program was too costly, “The Iraq war has cost over $500 billion—that’s money that’s already gone. Our commitment is for another $500 million if it ends soon. Since it won’t, we will spend a trillion and a half dollars on this insane, unproductive, self-defeating venture.

“Bush has the arrogance to proclaim that spending $7 billion for health care for 11 million children is too expensive.”

“This veto is so bad, even some of the most conservative Republicans will vote to override the veto,” he predicted. [The House failed to override the veto Oct. 18.]

While urging union members to help increase the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives to a veto-proof majority, Lantos also stressed the importance of labor uniting behind the Democrat who wins the nomination. “Labor is divided with different unions supporting different candidates,” he said. “I happen to be a friend of all the [Democratic] presidential candidates.” He said he had served in Congress with a Democratic majority during the Reagan Administration as well as under a Republican majority during both Democratic and Republican presidents. “We have got to get control of the White House and the Senate and the House,” he said. “We are engaged in damage control now and need to move ahead with the progressive agenda of the labor movement.”

Rep. Lantos said the 2008 presidential election would be historic and that, “It would be a nightmare to miss the opportunity to elect a pro-labor candidate,” which he said any of the Democratic Party candidates would be.

He pointed out that electing a Democrat to the presidency would benefit labor with better appointments at the cabinet level and to the National Labor Relations Board. “We need to control the executive branch,” he said. “You couldn’t find a better example [of anti-labor appointments] than the Bush administration.”

Lantos called the war in Iraq, “Clearly the most devastating policy and performance in American history. The number one need is to end it to prevent more young Americans from losing life and limb. I go to the hospital in D.C. and see these young people. It’s the most tragic and moving phenomenon.”

Lantos pointed out that, “because of the unbelievable waste of money, our infrastructure is crumbling. Who would have believed that a highway could collapse in a metropolitan area?” he asked. “Our infrastructure was built over 50 years ago and is crumbling all over the country. We claim to be a technologically advanced country but a major city was destroyed [in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina]. Here in California we have problems with our levees, but there is a philosophy that public spending is evil.”

Rep. Lantos was asked about other issues by some of the union members in attendance. On health care, he said that he supported the single-payer approach. “It is obviously the most rational, logical choice—none of the others compare,” he asserted. “Our presidential candidates recognize that political reality means we won’t get it. They’ve all put forward health care proposals and I’ve studied them all as an economist and they are all good—light years ahead of where we are now.” He said he would work for the quick enactment of comprehensive health care, adding that “While I’d prefer single payer, it won’t pass; but we can take a major step with a new Democratic President. We should never have a president who would veto health care for children.”

Lantos was asked by Greg Brown, president of the International Association of Machinists Local 1782, what he would do to stop airlines from shifting their profits in order to deny payment of pensions to employees. Lantos said that the Government Reform Committee he sits on would be holding hearings on the issue. “The way the airline employees have been treated is an outrage,” he said.

Carlos Flores of the Webpressman Local 4N asked Lantos for support in dealing with the issue of outsourcing of press jobs by the San Francisco Chronicle. The newspaper recently signed a deal with a giant Canadian printer to build and operate a new printing facility. “On may occasions in similar cases I’ve written to management to urge that employees’ jobs are protected,” Lantos said. “I will be in touch and propose a meeting to move this to a resolution. Where there is no legal remedy, sometimes a meeting with a pro-union member of Congress with considerable clout can help.”

Bob Morales of Teamsters Local 856 asked Rep. Lantos what Congress would do about the newly begun program under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) allowing trucks from Mexico to operate in the U.S. “I’ve been involved with Henry Waxman [chair of the Government Reform Committee] and I will hold hearings. It is extremely dangerous in a physical and national security sense. It takes away jobs from American truck drivers and allows unsafe trucks on our highways. If we elect a Democratic president, it will in in a matter of days.”

On the issue of loss of jobs through outsourcing and so-called free trade agreements Lantos said that, “When I started to teach Labor Economics, union members were 34 percent [of the workforce]; now it’s down to 12 percent. I truly believe that organizing under a labor-friendly White House Administration and pro-labor NLRB and Congress is the only answer to reverse that trend.” He said that reversing the impacts of NAFTA, which he voted against, would be difficult but that, “With the election of a Democratic President and strengthening our Congressional majority, next year could be the beginning of a historic turning point for labor.”

Stan Kiino of the Association of Flight Attendants District Council 11 thanked Lantos for his support for including airline crews in the Family Leave Act and pushing for adding OSHA standards to the FAA reauthorization legislation. Kiino expressed concern that a foreign-owned carrier, Virgin America, had been granted approval to fly out of San Francisco International Airport. Lantos said that, “ I met with the president of Virgin America and I told him ‘it won’t be a hospitable environment unless you allow union organizing.’”

Bill Nack, Business Manager of the San Mateo Building and Construction Trades Council, asked Lantos about his support for union members being employed in rebuilding the state’s infrastructure. “I’m passionately committed to the building trades—who built America,” Lantos said. He added that he thought there would be new infrastructure development under a new Democratic Administration. “We can’t do it state by state,” he said. “It has to be a national issue. The Iraq war cut billions of dollars that could be spent on infrastructure.”

San Francisco Labor Council Executive Director Tim Paulson told the Congressman that when janitors at the new federal building in the city picketed a non-union contractor there, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency of the Department of Homeland Security sent agents to harass the picketers. “Bush is using ICE to terrorize and harass workers engaged in organizing drives,” Paulson pointed out. Lantos said, “I think it’s an outrageous approach and I’ll do everything in my power to deal with it.”

Rep. Lantos was asked by Mark Goodwin of the California Fair Trade Coalition to support a new direction in U.S. trade relations, particularly regarding China. “I commend you for your work and am in support of the work you are doing,” Lantos said. “The safety violations [with products from China] exposed the issue—toothpaste, pet food, children becoming sick or injured from unsafe toys; there’s a growing awareness that we’ve opened the door to Chinese imports without concern for public health and safety.” He said he had met with the Chinese Ambassador and “read him the riot act.”

Lantos was asked by Michael Slaughter of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 6, what he was doing to forestall a U.S. military attack against Iran. The Congressman said his legislation that calls for more diplomacy and specifically prohibits military action on Iran had passed the House on a 397 to 16 vote.

Lantos also responded to a question about the private contractors operating in Iraq. He had held hearings earlier this year looking into waste, fraud and abuse in Iraq and noted that the Bush Administration policy was like “throwing suitcases fill of cash into quicksand.” He said that now, “After seven years, we now have oversight— which we didn’t have under the Republican majority—and Bush hates it.”

- by Paul Burton