Teamsters, International Brotherhood of

I anticipate a harsh 2009. Not since the Great Depression will so many people lose their homes. Companies of all sizes are cutting jobs, demanding wage concessions and seeking bankruptcy protection. Pension funds are in trouble. And yet working people can look to better days ahead. President-elect Obama will seize his once-in-a-generation chance to overcome the stasis that grips Washington. His first order of business will be to get the economy growing. In doing so, he will transform the way we think and act to make America strong. Cheap oil and cheap labor have long been seen as the way to prosper in the global marketplace. We learned in 2008 how false and dangerous a philosophy that is. We cannot compete globally by rewarding companies that exploit mature technologies and nonrenewable resources while cutting labor costs and destroying the environment. We cannot wean ourselves from foreign oil unless we encourage our industries, through discipline and standards, to invest in research, in technology and in their work force. President-elect Obama will no longer coddle companies that won’t pay workers fair wages or meet environmental standards. He will no longer allow powerful insiders to loot the decaying systems built by and for the middle class. Middle-class workers will rebuild our infrastructure — roads, bridges, power plants, transit systems — as a result of an Obama stimulus package that could cost more than a half-trillion dollars. Jobs will be created, and money will be put in the pockets of people who will spend it right away. Obama will begin the long, difficult task of renovating government institutions that atrophied under George W. Bush. By year-end, we will begin to see the restoration of a regulatory framework that will impose discipline and standards on companies. This will be good for workers and good for America.