Only in Bush's America

China, a country that is notorious for permitting abusive conditions in workplaces, is on the verge of implementing a law to give unions more meaningful collective bargaining rights and provide protection against both safety hazards and layoffs to employees.

And who, according to an Oct. 13 article in the New York Times, are among the most vociferous opponents of these pro-worker rights? The American corporations that are heavily involved in industry in China.

According to the article, those corporations are among those that "have expressed concern that the new rules would revive some aspects of socialism and borrow too heavily from labor laws in union-friendly countries like France and Germany."

The labor-rights effort is being aimed at foreign corporations and focuses on giving greater power to a large government-sanctioned union. At least part of the impetus for the change is concern by the Chinese government that unless working conditions are improved for many of its citizens, there is the risk of unrest that could threaten its leadership.

Nonetheless, while its motives may not be pristine, the move stands in striking contrast to the steps taken by the Bush Administration to restrict the rights of employees and their unions. The latest salvo came with the ruling by the National Labor Relations Board that full-time charge nurses are supervisory employees and therefore ineligible for union representation.

The majority of the board - all appointees of President Bush - said this status was appropriate because charge nurses sometimes assign tasks to their subordinates and exercise independent judgment.

In reality, though, these nurses lack the normal powers associated with management employees: the ability to hire, fire or evaluate workers or determine their salaries. The New York State Nurses' Association pointed out that the ruling leaves charge nurses vulnerable to being fired if they complain about patient conditions, since they will no longer have union protection against retaliation by their superiors.

As many as eight million employees could eventually be affected by the ruling, dealing a major blow to a labor movement that has been steadily shrinking for decades.

It's one more example of how President Bush's policies and philosophy are harmful to American workers and their unions.