Talking Politics, part 3

When Sanders and his colleagues complained, their direct supervisor listened to their complaints, but the workers did not feel that they were being taken seriously. Company rules dictated that this supervisor was the only person they could complain to. "We had to go through the chain of command," says Sanders.

Things got ugly soon after word leaked that the African-American workers believed there was discrimination in the promotions process. Sanders alleges that a co-worker scrawled "KKK" on his machinist toolbox. Another scrawled the epithet "nigger" on a sign in the tool room. Meanwhile, white workers brandished Confederate flags on their hard hats and toolboxes, Sanders charges. After each instance, Sanders and the other workers complained to higher management. On most occasions, nothing of substance was done. After one such incident, management circulated a memo stating that defacement of company facilities was grounds for termination, but no employees were fired on that basis.

Tensions intensified when the African-American workers got a lawyer and began the arbitration procedure. A white worker, who usually picked up lunch for the group, refused to take lunch orders for black workers. Things got so bad that Sanders and his co-workers called the Halliburton headquarters in Houston to complain. Still, nothing was done.

"We're concerned because during the time he was the CEO of Halliburton, several African-American employees complained about treatment at Halliburton," says Sanders. "Why didn't he as CEO of Halliburton step in and try to solve this problem? If Dick Cheney can't solve our internal problems at Halliburton, how can he solve some of the problems we have in the country as vice-president?"

Halliburton did not return the Phoenix's phone calls or e- mail messages seeking comment. A company spokesperson did confirm the arbitration, but declined to comment on it, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. "Mr. Cheney had no personal involvement in the situation down in Belle Chasse," spokesperson Cindy Viktorin told the paper.

But even if Cheney did not know the precise facts of the Belle Chasse case, he still presided over a company that prevents people like Sanders and his co-workers from suing in court. David Yamada, an associate professor at Suffolk University School of Law and an expert in labor law, says the Halliburton rules make it hard for the workers to change things. "It sounds like this is a place where the culture is really stacked against these workers," says Yamada. "Usually, if you've got some patterns of discriminatory treatment and evidence of lower-wage jobs and procedures that are weighted toward the employers, that's a tailor-made situation for maintaining or exacerbating discrimination."

What makes these facts about Cheney and Halliburton so striking is that 2000 was supposed to be the year that Bush defined himself as a compassionate conservative and a "very different Republican candidate." Had Bush simply followed the usual GOP playbook, all the allegations surrounding Cheney and his leadership of a company so hostile to workers would be nonstarters. But this is the year the Republicans went out of their way at the convention in Philadelphia to highlight African-American and Latino involvement in the party. This is the year Bush wanted to make a play for working voters -- and this is a year when swing voters in the Midwest matter.

Rui Teixeira, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and the co-author America's Forgotten Majority: Why the White Working Class Still Matters (Basic Books), says Halliburton's anti-labor record may hurt the Bush-Cheney ticket. Many of the voters Teixeira writes about live in the key Midwestern states that Bush needs to win the election -- in some, such workers make up 60 to 70 percent of the voting population. "This a loser for Bush-Cheney," says Teixeira. "Being identified with a big corporation that kicks workers around is not helpful with these voters. These are the same type of people that the Republicans desperately need to keep. These people aren't typical liberals, but they tend to look at big corporations suspiciously."

For Democrats, the facts speak for themselves. "You've got one guy, Al Gore, who says he's for working people," says Hank Sheinkopf. "You've got two other guys whose record says they hate working people." Cheney's defenders can say that Gore has his own sticky oil mess related to his holdings in Occidental Petroleum, a company that has been criticized for displacing the indigenous U'wa People in Colombia. But, Sheinkopf points out, "the difference is that Cheney ran a company where anti-worker policies were put into place and kept in place because he wanted them there to increase profits on the backs of the working people. This is not an accident. He was the boss. He was in charge."

Wittmann, of the Hudson Institute, adds that the new questions about Cheney at Halliburton only sharpen a distinction between the Republican vice-presidential candidate and his Democratic counterpart. "You can contrast this choice with the Lieberman choice, and that speaks volumes," says Wittmann. "The question is more in judgment and how you choose your candidates than the specifics of any of these situations. It does underscore Bush's failure to choose a vice-presidential candidate who could have made a difference the way Lieberman did for Gore."

For Bush, who is standing by Cheney and plans to increase his appearances with the former defense secretary, this latest news about Halliburton and Brown & Root is not good. It makes things harder when he needs them to be getting easier. The Bush campaign, like Halliburton, did not respond to telephone calls and e-mails requesting a response to this story. But ignoring the allegations won't make them go away.

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Seth Gitell can be reached at sgitell[a]phx.com.

The Talking Politics archive

Cheney's corporate past, continued

by Seth Gitell



The Boston Phoenix September 21 - 28, 2000
Cheney's corporate past, continued by Seth Gitell After working as a laborer and spending temporary stints in the machinists' department, Sanders says, he wanted to find out how he could be permanently transferred to the better-paying division. "I asked them, `What kind of system is there . . . to make sure we have equal opportunity for all?' " he recalls. Sanders eventually became a machinist, but when the next supervisory position opened up, it went to a white person -- even though one of Sanders's African-American colleagues with greater experience had competed for the job. When Sanders and his colleagues complained, their direct supervisor listened to their complaints, but the workers did not feel that they were being taken seriously. Company rules dictated that this supervisor was the only person they could complain to. "We had to go through the chain of command," says Sanders. Things got ugly soon after word leaked that the African-American workers believed there was discrimination in the promotions process. Sanders alleges that a co-worker scrawled "KKK" on his machinist toolbox. Another scrawled the epithet "nigger" on a sign in the tool room. Meanwhile, white workers brandished Confederate flags on their hard hats and toolboxes, Sanders charges. After each instance, Sanders and the other workers complained to higher management. On most occasions, nothing of substance was done. After one such incident, management circulated a memo stating that defacement of company facilities was grounds for termination, but no employees were fired on that basis. Tensions intensified when the African-American workers got a lawyer and began the arbitration procedure. A white worker, who usually picked up lunch for the group, refused to take lunch orders for black workers. Things got so bad that Sanders and his co-workers called the Halliburton headquarters in Houston to complain. Still, nothing was done. "We're concerned because during the time he was the CEO of Halliburton, several African-American employees complained about treatment at Halliburton," says Sanders. "Why didn't he as CEO of Halliburton step in and try to solve this problem? If Dick Cheney can't solve our internal problems at Halliburton, how can he solve some of the problems we have in the country as vice-president?" Halliburton did not return the Phoenix's phone calls or e- mail messages seeking comment. A company spokesperson did confirm the arbitration, but declined to comment on it, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. "Mr. Cheney had no personal involvement in the situation down in Belle Chasse," spokesperson Cindy Viktorin told the paper. But even if Cheney did not know the precise facts of the Belle Chasse case, he still presided over a company that prevents people like Sanders and his co-workers from suing in court. David Yamada, an associate professor at Suffolk University School of Law and an expert in labor law, says the Halliburton rules make it hard for the workers to change things. "It sounds like this is a place where the culture is really stacked against these workers," says Yamada. "Usually, if you've got some patterns of discriminatory treatment and evidence of lower-wage jobs and procedures that are weighted toward the employers, that's a tailor-made situation for maintaining or exacerbating discrimination." What makes these facts about Cheney and Halliburton so striking is that 2000 was supposed to be the year that Bush defined himself as a compassionate conservative and a "very different Republican candidate." Had Bush simply followed the usual GOP playbook, all the allegations surrounding Cheney and his leadership of a company so hostile to workers would be nonstarters. But this is the year the Republicans went out of their way at the convention in Philadelphia to highlight African-American and Latino involvement in the party. This is the year Bush wanted to make a play for working voters -- and this is a year when swing voters in the Midwest matter. Rui Teixeira, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and the co-author America's Forgotten Majority: Why the White Working Class Still Matters (Basic Books), says Halliburton's anti-labor record may hurt the Bush-Cheney ticket. Many of the voters Teixeira writes about live in the key Midwestern states that Bush needs to win the election -- in some, such workers make up 60 to 70 percent of the voting population. "This a loser for Bush-Cheney," says Teixeira. "Being identified with a big corporation that kicks workers around is not helpful with these voters. These are the same type of people that the Republicans desperately need to keep. These people aren't typical liberals, but they tend to look at big corporations suspiciously." For Democrats, the facts speak for themselves. "You've got one guy, Al Gore, who says he's for working people," says Hank Sheinkopf. "You've got two other guys whose record says they hate working people." Cheney's defenders can say that Gore has his own sticky oil mess related to his holdings in Occidental Petroleum, a company that has been criticized for displacing the indigenous U'wa People in Colombia. But, Sheinkopf points out, "the difference is that Cheney ran a company where anti-worker policies were put into place and kept in place because he wanted them there to increase profits on the backs of the working people. This is not an accident. He was the boss. He was in charge." Wittmann, of the Hudson Institute, adds that the new questions about Cheney at Halliburton only sharpen a distinction between the Republican vice-presidential candidate and his Democratic counterpart. "You can contrast this choice with the Lieberman choice, and that speaks volumes," says Wittmann. "The question is more in judgment and how you choose your candidates than the specifics of any of these situations. It does underscore Bush's failure to choose a vice-presidential candidate who could have made a difference the way Lieberman did for Gore." For Bush, who is standing by Cheney and plans to increase his appearances with the former defense secretary, this latest news about Halliburton and Brown & Root is not good. It makes things harder when he needs them to be getting easier. The Bush campaign, like Halliburton, did not respond to telephone calls and e-mails requesting a response to this story. But ignoring the allegations won't make them go away. Page \| 1 \| 2 \| 3 Seth Gitell can be reached at sgitell[a]phx.com. *The Talking Politics* archive**