• McCain wants to lower trade barriers for US companies.  Ninety-five
percent of the world's customers lie outside our borders and he says
we need to be at the table when the rules for access to those markets
are written. To do so, he thinks the U.S. should engage in
multilateral, regional and bilateral efforts to reduce barriers to
trade, level the global playing field and build effective enforcement
of global trading rules. He believes these steps would also strengthen
the U.S. dollar and help to control the rising cost of living that
hurts our families. 


• McCain says he will act to make American workers more competitive.
He wants to prepare the next generation of workers by making American
education worthy of the promise we make to our children and ourselves.
 We must be a nation committed to competitiveness and opportunity. He
would fight for the ability of all students to have access to any
school of demonstrated excellence. He would place parents and
children at the center of the education process, empowering parents
by greatly expanding the ability of parents to choose among schools
for their children. 

• McCain would reform the Unemployment Insurance System by depositing
a portion of each workers Unemployment Insurance Tax into a Lost
Earnings Buffer Account (LEB). If an individual becomes unemployed,
the LEB may be used to cover needed expenses, with a backstop of
traditional UI if the account is exhausted before 26 weeks. Workers
would have an incentive to preserve their LEB by getting back to work
quickly, and may be eligible for a re-employment bonus if they get a
new job quickly. The LEB would be portable, and upon retirement, the
property of the worker.

• McCain believes we should have a single, seamless approach to job
transition assistance. He thinks that the Unemployment Insurance
System must be more effective in helping those who have lost a job.
He would modernize and transform our current programs by
consolidating redundant federal programs, strengthening community
colleges and technical training and giving displaced workers more
choices to find their way back to productive and prosperous lives. 

• McCain would reform training programs to provide quick assistance
to workers seeking new skills. He would give workers access to a
flexible training account that permits them to pay for training at a
community college and use leftover funds to keep their health
insurance. 

• McCain would provide special, targeted assistance for older
workers. He believes training is often inefficient for older workers
and those 55 years of age and older who have built up an LEB would be
eligible for a Lost Earnings Supplement. The supplement of up to 50
percent of their earnings loss (up to a maximum of $10,000) for two
years would be rewarded for those who find work inside 26 weeks.

• He has for the most part supported the interests of the United Auto
Workers and the AFL-CIO.

• Obama believes that workers should have the freedom to choose
whether to join a union without harassment or intimidation from their
employers. Obama cosponsored and is strong advocate for the Employee
Free Choice Act, a bipartisan effort to assure that workers can
exercise their right to organize.  He will continue to fight for
EFCA's passage and sign it into law. 

• Obama has fought the Bush National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
efforts to strip workers of their right to organize. He is a
cosponsor of legislation to overturn the NLRB's "Kentucky River"
decisions classifying hundreds of thousands of nurses, construction,
and professional workers as "supervisors" who are not protected by
federal labor laws. 

• Obama supports the right of workers to bargain collectively and
strike if necessary.  He would work to ban the permanent replacement
of striking workers.

 • Obama would raise the minimum wage, index it to inflation and
increase the Earned Income Tax Credit.