Trade Unions banned - 2 May 1933
"The Trade Unions offices were closed, their money confiscated, and their leaders put in prison. In their place, Hitler put the German Labour Front which reduced workers' pay and took away the right to strike."
At least Bush doesn't have that funny little moustache
We all know that Bush is a corporate tool (opposition to unions, opposition to the minimum wage, opposition to job creation). As part of their overtime pay take-away, the Bush Labor Department is giving out tips to employers on how to make some workers ineligible for overtime pay.
Since the Democratic candidates are jockeying for endorsement by every union under the sun, you know the Rove administration is going to do all it can to fight the unions. "We're talking about an administration that opposes regulation on air quality, water quality, on forests, on food safety, on repetitive-stress injuries in the workplace ... but when it comes to unions, requiring them to itemize every expense, that doesn't seem to trouble this administration at all." Clearly the White House is ramping up an effort to ensnare unions in legal aggravations in time for the 2004 election campaign."
In December 2002, "the Labor Department issued new union reporting regulations, which would require itemization of every expense greater than $2,000 spent on organizing and strike services, lobbying or political activities". This "administrative nightmare" would cost unions millions.
The administration indicated that it would ask the Republican Congress to pass civil penalties for unions that don't meet reporting deadlines. George W. Bush's budget, unveiled in early February, cut money for enforcing workplace health and safety laws, and for investigating corporate violations of minimum wage, Family and Medical Leave mandates, and child-labor laws. But Bush dramatically increased the budget for auditing and investigating labor unions.
October 2002, Bush ordered the California dockworkers back to work, citing the Taft-Hartley Act, ending their strike without any real resolution of the issues.
Oh, by the way, the man who replaced Paul O'Neill as Treasury Secretary, John Snow, used to be the CEO of CSX. He got the treasury job after selling CSX's shipping line to - you guessed it - the Carlyle Group.
