Bush Plays His Antiunion Card

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GEORGE BUSH DEVELOPED A SUDDEN INTEREST IN labor law last Monday, the very day that the AFL-CIO leadership endorsed Bill Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. Bush issued a directive ordering all federal contractors to notify their non-union employees in union shops that they may decline to have their dues diverted to political candidates they do not support. Bush broke no new ground here -- the Supreme Court established that principle in a 1988 ruling. That is why the Bush pronouncement had the sound of an election-year effort to placate the restless right wing of the Republican Party. Bush will need conservative support in the South especially, where right-to-work states will be crucial battlegrounds. Clinton's home state of Arkansas is one.

The Bush order does not carry much throw weight. While the White House declares it will affect as many as 3 million workers, the AFL-CIO claims it will involve fewer than 1 million. And though it will not greatly diminish the potency of union political activities, it does send a message. Asked if he was engaging in union busting, Bush responded with a straight face, "We enforce individual rights." Bush, countered AFL-CIO president Lane Kirkland, "has given hypocrisy a bad name."