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U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao
AFL-CIO
Executive Committee Meeting
February 14, 2001
This is my second week at the Department of Labor. Much of
my time has been spent meeting with the career officials at DOL, getting the
benefit of their perspective and experience.
That’s why I’m here today—and if
there’s one message I want to leave with you, it’s that your
perspective and views matter to me, even if we reach different conclusions on
some issues.
In particular, I want to comment on an opinion piece that
appeared in the pages of USA Today this week, with this alarming
headline: “GOP puts unions in its crosshairs.”
The very first sentence reads, “Think the election
campaign season is over? Think again.”
I’m here to tell you that I’ve met with our new
President, I’ve met with the Cabinet, and that is definitely not
their perspective.
President Bush has said repeatedly he wants to “change
the tone” in Washington, and he really means it.
To him and to me, the election season is over—and
regardless of which side you or I were on during the battle, now it’s time
for all of us to roll up our sleeves and get to work for the country.
And just to prove it to you, the person who wrote this
article used to work for the Carpenters Union. They’re building a very
large building right across the street from the Department of Labor.
And even though that building is cutting into the great
view of the Capitol my office once had, they are definitely not “in
our sights.”
Well, that’s not quite true: half of OSHA is peering
out of their windows looking at that building for most of the day.
We’re going to disagree on a lot things—and those
disagreements will probably start happening sooner rather than later.
But the President has made it clear that we are not going
to be an Administration that has an “enemies list.”
We want to hear your views, and we will work hard to find
areas of agreement and compromise.
But I think President Bush’s call for a change of tone
needs to be a two-way street.
When we have a point of disagreement, as I’m sure we
will have soon enough, I don’t think it helps anyone, including the
workers we serve, to go right to the barricades as we have in the past.
I pledge to you that I will have an open door, and a
listening ear, so we can change the tone even on these very contentious
issues.
My top priority as Secretary of Labor is to identify and
advance issues that we can find agreement on, for the long-term benefit of all
American workers.
For example: I salute the long commitment that organized
labor has shown to promoting workforce training and development.
With the rapidly changing economy and the recent
dislocations it has caused to thousands of workers, we must take a fresh look
at this issue—and I welcome your partnership in that effort.
On another issue, workers’ expectations of retirement
security have completely changed from the norms that existed even twenty years
ago.
At the same time, the financial world is churning out
investment options at a dizzying pace, giving people at every economic level
the opportunity to personally shape their own retirement goals.
Once I’ve gotten settled at the Department, I would
like to start a new dialogue with you and others on what retirement ought to
look like in the 21st century—how we can make it more rewarding
and secure for workers at every income level.
As I said earlier, I’m sure there will be lots of
things we will find to fight over.
But I don’t want those disagreements to get in the way
of a chance we have to work together on big issues that will have much greater
impact on our workforce in the long run than all our disagreements taken
together.
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