From: harelb@math.cornell.edu
Newsgroups: alt.politics.elections
Subject: OCAW Pres.: RETRAIN FOR WHAT? WORKE
Date: 4 Sep 92 22:13:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:9209042212.AA01375@poly.math.cor:358503311:000:5406
Nf-From: math.cornell.edu!harelb    Sep  4 15:13:00 1992


From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (Harel Barzilai)
Subject: OCAW Pres.: RETRAIN FOR WHAT? WORKER SUPERFUND'S THE ANSWER   

    DENVER, Sept. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- President Robert E. Wages of the   
Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW) today issued   
the following Labor Day statement:   
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    "If we can have a superfund to remove toxic dirt, paid for by the
    corporations responsible, why can't we have a Superfund for
    Workers paid for by the corporations who close their plants
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    "NAFTA is not about free trade or any other kind of trade.  NAFTA
    is about driving our standards -- wage standards, worker safety
    standards, environmental standards, social benefit standards,
    public health standards -- down to the levels of Third World
    countries [...]  [and] guaranteeing to corporations the unlimited
    right to ruthlessly exploit the hemisphere's poorest peoples.
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[Via misc.activism.progressive from LaborNet's labor.newsline]
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[Inquiries by email, please, to harelb@math.cornell.edu, for more
information about PeaceNet/EcoNet or LaborNet, or about MAP,
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Topic 267       Retraining and Worker Superfund 
ocaw    Labor News & Notes       9:58 am  Sep  4, 1992 
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OCAW PRESIDENT: RETRAIN FOR WHAT? WORKER SUPERFUND'S THE ANSWER   
==================================================================
DATE:  September 4, 1992 
   
    DENVER, Sept. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- President Robert E. Wages of the   
Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW) today issued   
the following Labor Day statement:   
   
    Retrain for what?  Recent campaign promises by George Bush and Bill   
Clinton about the retraining of displaced workers leave me wondering   
what they can possibly be talking about.  What are they going to teach   
them to do?  Stand in unemployment lines and food lines?  Give them   
speech lessons so they can tell their families that there's no future in   
store?  Train them to survive without a roof over their heads?  With no   
jobs to retrain for, what's the point?   
   
    For 12 years, the Republicans have pursued a devastating, scorched-   
earth economic policy that has ravaged jobs, people and industries in   
this country beyond repair.  Now, with the North American Free Trade Act   
(NAFTA), they, along with plenty of help from the Democrats, want to   
finish us off.   

    NAFTA is not about free trade or any other kind of trade.  NAFTA is   
about driving our standards -- wage standards, worker safety standards,   
environmental standards, social benefit standards, public health   
standards -- down to the levels of Third World countries.  In short,   
it's about selling off our economic security and quality of life by   
guaranteeing to corporations the unlimited right to ruthlessly exploit   
the hemisphere's poorest peoples.   
   
    When workers lose their jobs and there are no other jobs to be had,   
except for unskilled minimum or sub-minimum wage jobs, then there's only   
one possible outcome -- impoverishment.  No amount of training or   
retraining will make a difference in that situation.  It's time to   
consider a new approach.   
   
    The approach our union has mapped out is based on the fundamental   
premise that those who are responsible for the problem should be the   
ones to fix it.  Our models -- concepts already accepted by our society   
-- are the Toxic Waste Superfund and the post-World War II G.I. Bill of   
Rights.  If we can have a superfund to remove toxic dirt, paid for by   
the corporations responsible, why can't we have a Superfund for Workers   
paid for by the corporations who close their plants -- for whatever   
reason -- and lay them off?  Why can't we treat this nation's workers as   
well as we treat dirt?   
   
    If we as a nation could pave the way for the transition to a   
peacetime economy by paying our veterans to attend college, why can't we   
do it again for our worker veterans who have been through the industrial   
wars of the 1980s and '90s?  In response to the argument that we can't   
afford it, I ask: how is it that we can mobilize capital for the massive   
S&L bailout, or for the waging of wars?  We can do just about anything   
when it's acceptable to those with wealth and power.   
   
    We need to redefine the whole concept of what work is.  Developing   
people's conceptual skills is far more important than merely training   
them to perform certain job-related operations, because they will learn   
to adapt to change.  If people are free to pursue education in whatever   
field they choose, it not only liberates and empowers them personally;   
it also elevates society to new levels driven by the creativity   
unleashed with a dynamic, well-educated workforce.   
   
    In other words our society, in its own self interest, should pay its   
members to become educated, cultured citizens of the world.   
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