Bill Bradley on Jobs

Raise minimum wage now; index it for later

Almost 10.5 million workers earn between $5.15 an hour and $6.15 an hour. 32% of them are working parents, 60% are women, and almost a million are working mothers. The minimum wage should be increased by $1 over two years, and future increases should be indexed to the median wage. This way, low-wage workers won’t need an act of Congress to keep up with the rest of America in good economic times. Source: The Journey From Here, by Bill Bradley, p.110-11 Aug 15, 2000

Family farms have no safety net; need foreign markets

“I would simply ask the family farmers of Iowa today, are you better off than you were seven years ago, or do we need a change?,” Bradley said. The agriculture sector is suffering through an economic downturn. Bradley said family farmers have no real help, “no safety net whatsoever,” from the current administration. Bradley demanded that foreign markets be opened to genetically modified commodities. “The most important thing we can do is use our authority to petition to get access to markets.” Source: Associated Press in the Brockton (MA) Enterprise, p. A7 Jan 9, 2000

Strengthen unionization laws & defend right-to-organize

“The union movement is critical to improving the standard of living for working families,” Bradley told 100 picketing Teamsters workers. “You need somebody on your side. I’m on your side.” Bradley favors tougher right-to-organize legislation, an increase in the minimum wage, and broader health-care coverage. Bradley spoke about his proposals to triple penalties for firing union organizers. “I want to put some teeth in the law that says you can’t fire someone who’s organizing,” Bradley said. Source: Bergen Record, p. A3 Dec 31, 1999

Ethanol makes sense for Midwest, but not for NJ

Bradley says he has altered his views on ethanol. “When I was in the Senate, I represented my state [and had] very specific New Jersey-based reasons” for opposing federal tax breaks for ethanol. Now, though, he believes “for farmers in the Midwest, ethanol makes sense” and has vowed “no raids on ethanol” in his administration because “ethanol is an important part of the reformulated gasoline program in the country and it will remain so.” Source: Sustainable Energy Coalition, media backgrounder #2 Nov 18, 1999

Raise minimum wage; more unions; low-income tax cuts

Bradley says he would use the power of the Presidency to push for universal health care, end child poverty, abolish mandatory prison terms, & end racial profiling by police. Asked how he would help the urban poor, Bradley said he would institute policies to end discriminatory lending practices by banks, press for tax cuts specifically aimed at helping middle-class and low-income people, raise the minimum wage, and push for legislation that would make it easier for workers to join labor unions. Source: James Dao, New York Times, p. A17 Aug 24, 1999

Supports unions for home-health & day-care workers

The lowest-paid workers in America are those who take care of our children and those who take care of our elderly parents when they are dying. Those workers deserve to be represented by a union because they deserve to have the power of the union behind them to give them leverage to get more money and better benefits for their family. Source: Speech at the Iowa AFL-CIO Aug 18, 1999

Soil erosion causes more damage than floods

Floods [on the Mississippi River] come & go in a natural cycle. Far more dangerous is the continual soil erosion in the Mississippi Valley. The virgin forests were nearly gone by the early 1900s: the Mississippi & its tributaries have been scooping up precious topsoil ever since. Without the forests, the flood levels are higher.. By 1935, the annual damage from soil erosion was 20 times the losses caused by annual floods. Yet we continue to worry about floods more than we do about soil erosion. Source: Time Present, Time Past, p. 15 Jan 8, 1997

Export unionism abroad

With the world becoming more interdependent, we need to export the American labor experience of the 1930s through the 1950s. Countries where workers make next to nothing cry out for honest, idealistic representation by trade unions. Trade unions need a government that sees their future as a part of its foreign policy. Unions, like the rest of America, need to see their future in an international as well as a domestic context. Source: Time Present, Time Past, p. 265 Jan 8, 1997

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