Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Bush to Spend Time with Unions

Aired September 02, 2002 - 08:35   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And on this Labor Day, President Bush is hoping to reassure anxious Americans about the strength of the economy. He is going to a picnic near Pittsburgh. That is where he hopes to make his point to labor by spending a little time with the country's largest construction union.
For a preview, here is our John King at the White House -- John, good morning.

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn. Short-term and long-term goals for the president. In the short-term, you noted, he will leave the White House about noontime, travel to Pittsburgh. He will first visit a training facility, then have a traditional Labor Day picnic with members of the carpenters' union, traditionally identified as a Democratic group, but the president has quoted the president of the carpenters' union, Doug McCarron, along with the president of the Teamsters Union, James P. Hoffa. Now, the effort by the president to surround himself with blue collar workers today and to urge the Congress, which will only be back in session for about another month because of the coming elections, to quickly pass a number of items the president says would help the economy.

For this group, item number one would terrorism insurance, federal guarantees that construction projects can go forward in this post September 11 of last year environment. The president says thousands of projects, tens of thousands of construction jobs being held up because of the uncertainty. That will be one focus of the president today short-term. Long-term, Pennsylvania is a state Mr. Bush lost in 2000. He very much wants to target that state for 2004. Very much hopes to, if you will, curry more favor with a traditional Democratic group, blue collar labor workers, that will be the president's focus on this Labor Day -- Daryn.

KAGAN: John, nice that the president is spending some time with carpenters, some big labor issues looming out there, long shoremen threatening to shut down ports up and down the West coast, you have 10,000 janitors threatening to go on strike in your hometown of Boston, and you also have a huge Boeing strike brewing out there. Any word from the administration on that?

KING: The administration can only get involved in certain cases. Remember early on in the Bush administration, Mr. Bush did get involved when it came to some airline disputes, the Railway Labor Act governs certain issues in which the president can get involved. They tend to involve economic security, like the airlines or like -- or port security is an area where the president could get involved down the road. But this president, as we saw in the baseball negotiations has said he believes in the marketplace, the unions and the management to try to work out their disputes, no indications as yet the president would get involved in any major labor disputes that we see on the horizon right now. We will see, though, if they tend to threaten the economy, that is when they get the White House's attention.

KAGAN: All right. John King at the White House. John, thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com