Clinton: 'We will give you the tools to enforce Davis-Bacon'
Obama: "It's time we had a president who didn't choke on saying the word 'union' "

By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer

WASHINGTON (PAI) - Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the two remaining Democratic presidential hopefuls, offered specific lists of pro-worker stands to the 3,000 delegates to the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department legislative-political conference.

The back-to-back speeches on April 15 (Obama) and April 16 (Clinton) came as the two joust for support among workers and their families. There were 2,405 delegates and 1,000 guests.

Both took sharp jabs at Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the presumed GOP nominee, after lambasting incumbent anti-worker GOP President George W. Bush. Clinton said Bush turned the Labor Department "into the Department of Anti-Labor." Obama said Bush converted DOL into "the Department of Management."

"Turning around all the damage from George W. Bush will not be easy," warned Clinton. Obama reminded the crowd that in addition, GOP Vice President Cheney, as a Halliburton executive, "raided workers' pensions for his golden parachute."

As for McCain, Clinton dismissed him as "a GOP nominee who has served his country with dedication and honor" in the military "but who is just dead wrong about everything." And Obama said, "I don't think America can afford four more years of the failed Bush policies and that's what he (McCain) is offering. We need to roll back the Bush-McCain tax cuts and invest in things like health care that are really important."

Both candidates got loud receptions and frequent ovations, sometimes prompted by turning the lights on in the hall. Clinton's was louder, as members of the Painters, who have endorsed her, were seated in front when she spoke, wearing pro-Clinton T-shirts. When Obama spoke, the Laborers - who have made no decision - were in front. The two agreed on many issues important to workers, including:

* Backing the right to organize. Obama repeated his line that "It's time we had a president who didn't choke on saying the word 'union' " and reminded the crowd that he walked away from a downtown Chicago corporate law firm to started his career as an organizer among steel workers at the city's shuttered South Side plants.
"We need to strengthen our unions by letting them do what they do best - organize. If a majority want a union, they should get a union. And that is why I'll fight for and intend to sign the Employee Free Choice Act when it lands on my desk at the White House," he declared.

• Preserving Davis-Bacon prevailing wage laws. Obama said that when he's in the White House, construction workers will not have to worry about GOP-inspired repeal efforts. He also said would restore project labor agreements for federally funded construction work. Clinton made the same pledge, noting that Bush's father also dumped PLAs and her husband restored them, only to see George W. Bush dump them again. "It takes a Clinton to clean up the mess the Bushes left," she commented.
• Clinton added her Labor Department "will crack down on contractors who violate Davis-Bacon" and promised that "we will give you the tools to enforce Davis-Bacon," through "meaningful access to contractor pay records." Over its GOP governor's veto, the Democratic-run Minnesota legislature enacted its own statewide Davis-Bacon enforcement law, and a case involving that is on trial in the southern part of the state.
• 'Independent contractors' dodge. Obama pointed out that, after hearing from construction workers and honest contractors in Illinois, he previously introduced legislation to outlaw contractor misclassification of workers as "independent contractors." That misclassification, widespread in construction, lets unscrupulous contractors avoid paying Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes on behalf of their workforce, and evade workers' comp. Illinois has outlawed such misclassification statewide.

Clinton agreed, calling misclassification "wrong and against the law and un-American, and I'll put an end to it." She did not mention the legislation outlawing it.

(The same day Obama spoke, Reps. James McDermott (D-Wash.), Richard Neal and John Tierney (both D-Mass.) introduced a House bill outlawing the independent contractors' dodge. Change to Win Executive Director Greg Tarpinian praised the measure, saying firms use the dodge "to use tax fraud as a business model.")

Health care for all. Clinton said she was "the only candidate with a plan for universal health care," but did not give details. Obama's universal plan would cover kids, but he said its pro-competition aspects would make insurance affordable to all adults by driving premiums down by $2,500 per family per year. "And for those who don't have health care, we're going to set up a plan as good as he one I have as a member of Congress," he stated.
Each hopeful offered some details that the other did not cover:

• Obama promised to support federal funding for the Building Trades' helmets-to-hardhats program, which offers returning war veterans apprenticeships and training in skilled construction trades, followed by job placement - and union membership. Clinton also praised helmets-to-hardhats, but did not discuss money.
• Clinton pushed her "Rebuild America" plan, to sell $3 billion in bonds "as we did in World War II" but for rebuilding infrastructure. She also pledged to "crack down on countries like China that steal our defense secrets" and to "keep defense jobs in America," both key causes of the Machinists.

She specifically cited the case of then-unionized MagnaQuench in Indiana, now closed by its new Chinese owners. Plant workers made magnets for smart bombs, she noted, adding: "The jobs went to China; so did the technology. Bush did nothing. This makes no sense at all."