Hopes and Prospects: on Jobs


Barack Obama: OpEd: Backed Employee Free Choice Act only during campaign

While running for office, Obama said he strongly backed the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). However, when Obama took office and talked about steps to 'jolt' the economy, the Act was not part of the package. EFCA quickly vanished. And to make priorities even clearer, a few weeks after taking office, Pres. Obama decided to show his solidarity with workers by giving a talk at a Caterpillar plant. The hardline CEO of Caterpillar rescinded the contract with United Auto Workers in 1991, instituted a lockout, and brought in scabs, for the first time in generations in manufacturing industry.

At the time of Caterpillar's innovation in labor relations, Obama was a community organizer in Chicago and visiting fellow at the University of Chicago Law School. He must have been reading the Chicago Tribune, which ran a careful study in these events. They reported that the union was "stunned" to find that unemployed workers crossed the picket line with no remorse.

Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p.217-218 Jun 1, 2010

Noam Chomsky: Obama backed EFCA, then visited scab/lockout company

A labor journalist wrote that "while running for office, Obama said he strongly backed the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a long-overdue labor law reform measure that should be part of his promised economic stimulus plan." However, when Obama took office, EFCA quickly vanished. Pres. Obama decided to show his solidarity with workers by giving a talk at a Caterpillar plant. The hardline CEO of Caterpillar rescinded the contract with United Auto Workers in 1991, instituted a lockout, threatened to bring in "permanent replacement workers" (scabs), and later did so, for the first time in generations in manufacturing industry. The practice was illegal in other industrial countries. It is hard to imagine that Obama and his advisers purposely chose a corporation that led the way to undermine labor rights. More likely, they were unaware of the facts.
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p.217-218 Jun 1, 2010

  • The above quotations are from Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky.
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