What Unions Really Want: A Stimulus Bill

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/11/10/labor-congress-unions-biz-beltway-cx_bw_1111labor.html

Big Labor
What Unions Really Want: A Stimulus Bill
Brian Wingfield, 11.11.08, 6:00 AM ET

While Big Labor's big issues--health care reform and legislation that would make it easier for unions to organize--grab media attention these days, the more immediate priority for many labor unions is Congress' passage of a sweeping fiscal stimulus package.

From the AFL-CIO and Change to Win, a coalition of seven unions that includes the Teamsters union and the Service Employees International Union, passage of a stimulus plan quickly to get the economy going again is a top priority. And they're likely to see an early victory, in part because of a strange bedfellow: Big Business. Industry groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers are pushing hard for the exact same thing.

Makes sense. The stimulus plan that Congress looks to take up next week would provide as much as $100 billion in funding, much of which would be used to build new infrastructure. Businesses want the contracts that the infrastructure investment would provide. Labor groups would see a surge in union-protected manufacturing jobs. Both sides are also pushing for the government to help out U.S. automakers General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ), Ford (nyse: F - news - people ) and Chrysler.

"It's damn important to us," Gary Hubbard, a spokesman for the United Steelworkers, says of the stimulus.

The Chamber has also said it would support the extension of unemployment benefits in some states, such as Michigan, where unemployment rates are high and people are out of work for months at a time.

Nonetheless, don't mistake this rare display of agreement between labor and business as an alliance. "There's nothing that will be done in a sustainable way if we create green sweatshop jobs," says Change to Win Executive Director Chris Chafe. He says he's looking for a "high-road" partnership between the two groups on the stimulus issue.

FULL story at link.

[hendo]

1. If any money goes to the big three

there better be some tight restrictions on the use of that money. It had better be directed towards the development of alternative fuel vehicles.