• 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.