RESEARCH General Government

THE PRESIDENCY
Bush's activist role in labor issues a contrast from earlier GOP leaders

Mark Reutter, Business and Law Editor
(217) 333-0568; mreutter@uiuc.edu

5/1/2001

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- As he ends his first 100 days in office, President George W. Bush has proven surprisingly interventionist in domestic matters – especially in labor-related issues that Republican presidents typically have steered away from.

"There is a strong Republican tradition, dating back to Dwight Eisenhower, of not directly antagonizing organized labor," said Michael H. LeRoy, a University of Illinois labor-law professor.

"This included Richard M. Nixon, who had many political allies in organized labor, and Ronald Reagan, who in spite of his decision to fire federal air traffic controllers who went on strike, took an overall non-interventionist approach."

President Bush, on the other hand, has moved swiftly to make his mark in this area, mostly by overturning rules that were established by the Clinton administration. He has repealed four Clinton executive orders, including one that allowed unions to divert nonunion workers' representation fees to political causes without their consent. The White House also teamed up with Capitol Hill Republicans to overturn workplace ergonomic rules that required employers to reduce repetitive-stress injuries.

"The ergonomic rules were the result of 10 years of government study starting with the administration of his father (George Bush)," noted Michelle Kaminski, a UI professor of labor and industrial relations. Kaminski said some of the actions are "payback" for the AFL-CIO’s vigorous support of Democratic candidate Al Gore, while others reflect what she called the "pro-corporate bias" of the new administration. "Repetitive-stress injury isn't something that comes from opening and closing a briefcase."

The next political battle, predicted Ron J. Peters, head of the UI's labor education program, will involve officials appointed to Department of Labor positions and vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board. "Already the administration has signaled its intention to name Eugene Scalia to be the U.S. Labor Department's solicitor, or top legal officer," Peters said. Scalia, a labor lawyer and son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, recently helped kill the ergonomic rules.

LeRoy said Bush's stance differs from the approach of Republican presidents since Eisenhower, who tried to distance himself from the big railroad and steel strikes that engulfed the presidency of Harry S. Truman. "Clinton was an interventionist.
He helped mediate the baseball players strike and was involved in stopping the 1997 strike of American Airlines pilots shortly after it began," noted Le Roy, who has written extensively on presidential actions in strikes.

President George W. Bush recently invoked his power under the Taft-Hartley Act to block a threatened job action by mechanics at Northwest Airlines and vowed to stop other potential strikes against airlines this year.