Md. law hailed as win for workers

‘Wal-Mart’ bill to spur national fight, AFL-CIO says

Friday, Jan. 20, 2006

AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney calls Maryland’s new ‘‘Wal-Mart” law the ‘‘first crisp punch” in the national fight for workers’ rights.

Sweeney, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, said his organization is launching similar campaigns in more than 30 states.

Maryland’s law — approved by the General Assembly over Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s veto — is the first in the nation to require large employers, those with at least 10,000 workers, to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on employee medical insurance. Wal-Mart is the only company in Maryland directly affected by the law.

‘‘What are we going to do about the destruction of good jobs in our country, the jobs that for the past half-century helped us create the largest middle class, the most dynamic economy and the strongest democracy in the history of the world?” Sweeney asked in announcing the union campaign.

The U.S. poverty rate was up in 2004, Sweeney said, the first time on record that household incomes failed to increase for five years in a row.

America has decided to compete in the global marketplace by degrading work and workers through privatization and de-unionization, rather than competing through innovation and ingenuity, Sweeney said.

With the absence of rules in the emerging global workforce, he said, ‘‘corporations have pitted the new workers against American workers in a merciless race to the bottom.”

Employees are not the only ones being harmed, said Sweeney, head of the nation’s largest association of labor unions. The current system leaves businesses with consumers who do not have enough money to spend, and it leaves government with more demand for subsidies and public services.

‘‘If I were president,” Sweeney said, ‘‘I would admit to the joint session of Congress that we’re barely creating enough new jobs to match the growth in our workforce, and increasingly, the jobs we are generating are dead-end alleys.

‘‘I’d insist that we reverse those policies and lift workers everywhere by demanding that workers’ rights be afforded as much protection as corporate interests in all present and future trade agreements.”

Sweeney also said he would demand the repeal of tax laws that encourage corporations to send jobs out of the country.

He detailed measures the AFL-CIO is taking to fight the injustices he listed, including the report cards the organization issued this month on congressional voting records.

Maryland Senate Republicans painted a less rosy picture of the effect Maryland’s new law will have on workers and the economy.

Sen. J. Lowell Stoltzfus (R-Dist. 38) of Westover said the new government interference would drive up prices for the consumer and not necessarily help workers. The General Assembly’s vote was ‘‘pure politics,” he said, and the law is a tool for micromanaging businesses.

‘‘The government should not be managing private business,” said Stoltzfus, the Senate minority leader. ‘‘We have a higher quality of life with Wal-Mart.”

The veto override sends a hostile message to employers who want to bring employees to Maryland, said Sen. Richard Colburn (R-Dist. 37) of Cambridge.

‘‘It’s bad for consumers, bad for growth, bad for the small businesses that will be targeted,” Colburn said. ‘‘You have to rename Maryland ‘The People’s Republic of Maryland,’ now that we’re the leader of the socialized medicine movement.”