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Time - Man of the Year
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Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
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042792
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1992-09-10
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THE WEEK, Page 14NATIONBush Plays His Antiunion Card
Big Labor backs Clinton, and the President smacks Big Labor
George Bush developed a sudden interest in labor law last
Monday, the very day that the AFL-CIO leadership endorsed Bill
Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. Bush issued
a directive ordering all federal contractors to notify their
non-union employees in union shops that they may decline to have
their dues diverted to political candidates they do not support.
Bush broke no new ground here -- the Supreme Court established
that principle in a 1988 ruling. That is why the Bush
pronouncement had the sound of an election-year effort to
placate the restless right wing of the Republican Party. Bush
will need conservative support in the South especially, where
right-to-work states will be crucial battlegrounds. Clinton's
home state of Arkansas is one.
The Bush order does not carry much throw weight. While the
White House declares it will affect as many as 3 million
workers, the AFL-CIO claims it will involve fewer than 1
million. And though it will not greatly diminish the potency of
union political activities, it does send a message. Asked if he
was engaging in union busting, Bush responded with a straight
face, "We enforce individual rights." Bush, countered AFL-CIO
president Lane Kirkland, "has given hypocrisy a bad name."