"I was raised on this bedrock principle: the right to organize is a basic American right. It must never be blocked. It must never be stopped. It must never be taken away. So let me tell you what I'll do as President: if a piece of anti-worker legislation ever comes near my desk, I'll reach over, ink up that veto pen, and strike it down in a heartbeat." - Al Gore

For more than twenty years, while serving as a Congressman, a Senator, and as Vice President, Al Gore has fought tirelessly to improve the standard of living of America's working families. As President, Al Gore will support increases in the minimum wage, fight to guarantee workers' rights to organize and participate in our political system, oppose dangerous cuts to worker safety and will support laws to help working families afford health care and save for their retirement.

FIGHTING FOR WORKERS' RIGHTS

• Supporting the Rights of Workers to Organize: Al Gore has long been a vocal supporter of unions' and the rights of all Americans to organize. He believes that the right to organize and bargain collectively is a fundamental American right that should never be taken away. As President, Al Gore will
• Stiffen penalties for employer interference with the right to organize and violations of other worker rights.
• Work to reform labor laws to protect workers' rights to exercise their voices and organize into unions by providing for a more level playing field between management and labor during organizing drives, and facilitating the ability of workers to organize and to bargain collectively.
• Stand up for the National Labor Relations Board to protect the right to organize.
• Working to Ban Permanent Striker Replacements: Al Gore supports Constitutionally-appropriate legislation to ban companies from hiring permanent replacements for striking workers and will make such legislation one of his top priorities.
• Protecting the Rights of Working Families to Participate in the Political Process: Al Gore has fought hard to protect the right of unions to participate in our political process. In 1998, Gore worked with labor leaders to defeat the so-called "paycheck protection" ballot initiative in California that would have restricted the ability of unions to speak out on issues important to America's working families. As President, Al Gore will fight attempts to take away the rights of workers to have their voice heard in the political process.
• Opposing "Company Unions": In 1995, Al Gore opposed Congressional Republicans' efforts to pass the Teamwork for Employees and Management (TEAM) Act, which would have permitted companies to form "company unions." Speaking at an AFL-CIO executive council meeting in February of 1995, Gore denounced the legislation and promised that the Administration would block it. As President, Al Gore will veto any attempts to revive "company unions."
• Enforcing Our Labor Laws: Al Gore will protect our wage and hour laws, including the forty-hour workweek and overtime requirements, and stand firm in support of the Davis-Bacon Act and the Service Contract Act. He has also proposed reforming government contracting rules to ensure that taxpayer dollars do not go to companies that break basic labor laws. And he will fight for strong whistle-blower protections for workers who identify workplace violations.
• Working to Increase Workplace Safety: Al Gore supports efforts to make workplaces safer for all workers. Under the Clinton-Gore Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) program, the incidence of workplace injuries has fallen to its lowest level in history. As President, Al Gore will direct OSHA to continue to seek ways to improve employee health and safety and to help small businesses comply with a minimum of cost or confusion to small businesses. He will also oppose efforts to weaken workplace safety laws, including Republican attempts to slash OSHA funding. And he will continue to fight for a standard to protect our nation's workers from ergonomic injuries.

HELPING AMERICA'S WORKING FAMILIES

• Fiscal Responsibility: As President, Al Gore will ensure that the current economic prosperity is broadened and that the benefits reach all working families. Al Gore's economic plan would use some of the additional budget surpluses to pay our national debt down sooner.
• This fiscally disciplined approach ensures that our children will not be saddled with debt and the enormous costs of paying for the Baby Boomers. It assures that the United States will be debt free by 2012 - for the first time since 1835.
• Paying down the publicly held debt will help keep interest rates low - allowing for greater investment in the private economy, keeping our economy going strong, and creating good new jobs.
• Increasing the Minimum Wage: Al Gore supports raising the minimum wage by $1 over two years and regular reviews of this wage increase to make sure that it keeps up with a changing economy. Now is the time to help Americans who work hard, play by the rules, and earn the minimum wage. Gore believes we need to match our economic prosperity with respect for the importance and dignity of the work done by all Americans.
• Tax Cuts for Working Families: Al Gore supports a pro-growth, pro-savings $500 billion package of targeted tax cuts and credits that fits within a responsible budget framework and helps working families realize their own values. Gore's plan would provide families with tax relief to help them afford quality child care, higher education and lifelong learning, health insurance, and long-term care for an aging or disabled relative. Gore also will eliminate the marriage penalty for working families and expand the Earned Income Tax Credit to help lift all working families out of poverty.
• Expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act: Al Gore has proposed expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to businesses with more than 25 employees and giving 24 hours of additional time off for emergencies or school needs. Al Gore also believes that we need to consider ways to make it more affordable for parents to take time off after the birth or adoption of a child. Gore has encouraged states to use Unemployment Insurance, Temporary Disability Insurance, and other mechanisms to overcome barriers that prevent families from taking advantage of Family and Medical Leave.
• Ensuring for Equal Pay: All women deserve equal pay for an equal day's work. As President, Al Gore will work hard to close the pay gap between men and women. In the Fiscal Year 2001 budget, the Clinton-Gore Administration allotted $27 million for the Equal Pay Initiative, an increase of $12 million over Fiscal Year 2000, to provide training and assistance to employers on how to comply with equal pay requirements, to launch a public service announcement campaign on wage issues, to train women in nontraditional jobs, and to promote other measures. Al Gore will build on these efforts to improve pay parity for women and he will work to pass legislation which would allow women to hold employers accountable for pay violations.

HEALTH CARE FOR WORKING AMERICANS

• Strengthening Medicare for the Future: Al Gore has proposed a historic new off-budget "Medicare lock box" so that Medicare Payroll taxes can be used only to bolster the Medicare trust fund, pay down the national debt, and ensure that Medicare is strong for the next quarter century.
• Prescription Drug Benefit: In Congress, Al Gore fought against the pharmaceutical industry to make prescription drugs more affordable. As President, Al Gore will expand Medicare to help seniors afford prescription drugs so they no longer are forced to choose between paying for the medicine they need and paying for food or rent. Under Gore's plan, seniors would receive 50% of prescription drug costs, up to $5,000 annually, and a new prescription drug benefit for catastrophic illness. Gore's plan also provides cost-sharing protections from income beneficiaries.
• Strong, Enforceable Patients' Bill of Rights: Al Gore is a strong supporter of the Patients' Bill of Rights that would take decisions away from insurance companies and HMOs and give medical decisions back to patients and their doctors.
• Expanding Access to Quality, Affordable Health Care Coverage: Al Gore is proposing a Health Care Trust Fund that would expand access to quality, affordable health care coverage to millions of uninsured Americans. The fund would:
• Ensure that all children have access to affordable health insurance by 2005.
• Expand eligibility for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to the 7 million uninsured parents of children eligible for Medicaid or CHIP.
• Allow vulnerable Americans ages 55 to 65 to buy into Medicare, with a 25 percent tax credit to help make it affordable.
• Assure tax equity through a new tax credit for the cost of health insurance for small business employees and individuals who do not have job-based health care.
• Maintain and strengthen health care delivery systems serving the uninsured.

RETIREMENT SECURITY FOR AMERICAN WORKERS

• Saving Social Security: Social Security is a bedrock guarantee of a decent retirement for millions of working Americans. With the nation enjoying unprecedented prosperity, now is the time to save Social Security and Medicare and address the future financial strains on these programs. While some want to privatize Social Security and risk its guaranteed benefit, Al Gore has a common-sense approach to move forward on Social Security and help assure Americans a secure retirement for the future. Gore's plan keeps Social Security secure for future retirees, people with disabilities, and the unemployed and strengthens it with sound financial proposals like debt reduction, guaranteeing the solvency of the program through at least 2054.
• Retirement Savings Plus: Gore also believes that we should look for new ways to help Americans save for their retirement - while protecting guaranteed Social Security benefits. He has proposed new Retirement Savings Plus accounts that will enable working Americans to build a tax-free retirement nest egg in addition to Social Security's guaranteed benefit. Under Gore's plan, the federal government would match individual contributions, with the hardest-pressed working families getting the largest matching contributions. A couple fully participating in the plan could build a nest egg of up to $400,000 for their retirement.
• Ensuring Adequate Pension Plans for all Workers: As a U.S. Senator, Al Gore co-sponsored the "Employee Pension Protection Act of 1989," an early pension reform bill that sought to protect and strengthen employees' pensions. Since 1994, the current Administration has successfully passed reform bills that have simplified the pension process for small businesses, expanded pension portability, and protected employee pension funds. As President, Al Gore will:
• Make it easier for those who work in physical labor and move from job to job to retire early - by making sure they don't face arbitrary, bureaucratic limits on their retirement benefits and how those benefits are calculated.
• Crack down on companies that try to change pension plans behind employees' backs. Gore will require that companies fully disclose any changes that might reduce benefits - and penalize those that don't. He will also work to enable more long-term employees to keep their old plans if they desire.
• Get tough on companies that try to rob employees' pension benefits by misleading employees or practicing age discrimination.

BUILDING AN EDUCATED WORKFORCE

• Worker Training: Our most important business investment is in our human capital. To keep up with a fast-moving, fast-changing economy, workers must have the ability to continue learning and upgrading their skills for a lifetime. That is why Al Gore has focused on the next great frontier in American education: dramatically expanding opportunities for lifelong learning and worker training. Today, many of our most advanced industries are facing shortages of the skilled workers they need. At the same time, adults with higher levels of education earn more, have greater job security, are less likely to be unemployed, and are more likely to find reemployment quickly if they are displaced. Gore believes that in the 21st Century, lifelong learning should be as affordable and routine as buying a new appliance or financing a car.

Al Gore will fight to expand learning opportunities for all Americans. It's the smartest, most cost effective investment we can make to continue the nation's unprecedented growth and prosperity.

To make sure that individuals can reach their potential in the 21st Century, Al Gore is working toward the day when every American has the opportunity to continue learning for a lifetime by obtaining the skills they need to succeed. Gore's lifelong learning and worker training initiative will:

• Create New Learning Opportunities for America's Workers: To make it easier for firms to upgrade the skills of their workers or for firms to move into a community with a labor force that has the necessary skill, Gore has offered a new proposal to offer assistance, in the form of matching grants, to states to help develop worker skills. These competitive grants would be offered to communities who develop a plan to partner with local workforce boards, industry, and labor groups, as well as Regional Skill Alliances, to develop meaningful, accredited learning opportunities for workers to meet the skills needed in their communities. Those grants would help employers who want to expand their technology and assure workers have the training they need.
• Provide a Tax Credit up to $6,000 for Employers Who Provide Worker Training: To make it easier for workers to succeed in the new economy, Gore's plan would offer employers a tax credit up to $6,000 per employee for worker training in information technology and other technology skills. The credits would be limited to programs accredited by a local workforce board or institution of higher education and would be targeted to frontline workers.
• Help Workers Save for Life-Long Learning Through 401(j) Accounts: Gore's plan would create new 401(j) accounts so that employers can help employees save tax free for lifelong learning for the employee and his or her spouse.
• Make Tuition Tax Deductible: The Administration's Hope Scholarship and Lifetime Learning Tax Credits have provided an estimated $3.5 billion in tax relief for 4.8 million families. Gore's proposed College Opportunity Tax Cut would build on these efforts by making $10,000 of tuition and fees for post-secondary education and training tax deductible. The plan would give individuals up to $2,800 annually in tax relief per family and would give individuals in lower tax brackets the same amount of relief as those in higher brackets. This tax credit will open the doors to college for millions of Americans by making it more affordable.
• Expand the Availability of Support for Dislocated Workers to Continue Training: Under current law, only workers who are eligible for trade adjustment assistance automatically receive benefits beyond the initial 26 weeks of unemployment insurance. Al Gore has proposed matching challenge grants to states that provide a training allowance to all unemployed workers in approved training programs. Under this proposal, the Federal government would match states that choose to give unemployed workers an additional 13 weeks of training allowance benefits if it is necessary to complete their training.

MAKING THE GLOBAL ECONOMY WORK FOR ALL

Trade has been an important part of our economic expansion - about a third of our economic growth in recent years has come from selling American goods and services overseas. Al Gore knows that to build a new consensus for more open trade, we must give workers the tools they need to compete in the global economy and support rules that will protect workers' rights, human rights, and environmental protections. American workers need access to ongoing skill development so that they have the tools they need to succeed in the New Economy. In addition, our trade adjustment assistance programs should be improved so that all affected workers receive timely and adequate assistance, including measures to address health care coverage and pension protections. There is no doubt that with trade - and with investments in giving American workers the skills they need - we can out-compete workers anywhere in the world.

• Labor Provisions in International Agreements: Al Gore believes that we need to make the global economy work for all. That means making sure that all trade agreements contain provisions that will protect the environment and labor standards, as well as open markets in other countries. Al Gore will insist on and use the authority to enforce worker rights, human rights, and environmental protections in trade agreements. He believes that America should use trade to lift up standards around the world not drag down standards here at home. As President, Al Gore will:
• Challenge American companies to ensure labor protections and worker safety at their overseas operations.
• Advise U.S. representatives at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to advance fair treatment for workers internationally.
• Vigorously monitor trade agreements to make sure other nations are not shirking their responsibilities.
• Support efforts to create a new arm of the International Labor Organization that will work with developing counties to protect the interests of workers throughout the world.
• Protecting American Jobs: With the aid of Al Gore, America's steel industry weathered the effects of the Asian financial crisis. As President, Gore will move aggressively to reduce our overall trade deficit and stop the erosion of good paying manufacturing jobs. This includes negotiating tough agreements to reduce persistent automotive trade imbalances with our major trading partners. We must continue to monitor imports, and ensure that the United States utilizes all of its trade laws and other mechanisms consistent with the World Trade Organization guidelines, including product specific safeguards to stop quickly and effectively any import surges when they threaten our workers and communities.
• Manufacturing is a principal engine of productivity growth, a provider of jobs that pays family-supportive wages, and a significant source of exports for paying our way in the world economy. Technological innovation is critical to maintaining a strong manufacturing sector as we enter the Information Age. As President, Al Gore will fight to keep America's basic industries the most competitive in the world.
• As we continue the process of reinventing government to make its service better, more cost-efficient, and more accessible for all Americans, Al Gore believes that we must forge partnerships between labor and management that recognize the interests of both sides while uniting both front-line government workers and managers in a common crusade to improve government performance. Further, we must recognize that privatization of government services is no panacea. Some services are inherently public. We must ensure that government has the tools and expertise necessary to provide high-quality services. And to ensure government works better and costs less, public employees must be allowed to compete both for their current work and for new work. When government work is contracted out to private companies, they should adhere to the same level of accountability as public agencies, and those arrangements must incorporate labor, safety, health, civil rights, and other important safeguards.
• We must also ensure that we maintain adequate public funding and public administration of publicly operated and delivered transportation services, without gutting collective bargaining agreements or long-standing worker-protections. In these and other areas, Al Gore will encourage project labor agreements, fostering labor-management cooperation, quality development, and efficient use of public monies. With the right investments, new environmentally friendly transportation technologies can create new jobs for American workers.

Source: Al Gore for President 2000 Web Site