Gore, in Detroit, Says Bush Is Failing to Protect Jobs

Tennessee Sen. Al Gore accused President Bush of traveling to northern Michigan to be photographed walking across the Mackinac Bridge on Monday while failing to protect the jobs at U.S. Steel’s Southworks facility in Chicago, which produced the materials that went into the bridge.

The plant, which employed 20,000 at its height, closed April 5 and sent its remaining 700 workers to the unemployment line, Gore said.

“That company had to close its doors because of the Bush-Quayle economic policies,” Gore told a crowd of 5,000 unionized workers in Detroit’s Hart Plaza, who responded with a chorus of boos. “So Mr. President, you can walk across the bridge for a photo opportunity. But you better be thinking about the jobs of the people who built that bridge that you put out of work.

“When it comes to the working people of this country, Bush and Quayle keep saying, ‘We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,’ ” Gore said.

The Democratic vice presidential nominee told the AFL-CIO-sponsored rally that Labor Day “is the day for celebrating the American workers, and there couldn’t be a better place for this kind of celebration than right here in Detroit.”

But under the Bush Administration, one in 10 auto workers have lost their jobs, he charged.

“Photo opportunities won’t put bread on the table,” he thundered. “Photo opportunities won’t put men and women back to work. Photo opportunities won’t rebuild our economy.

“They’ve got a lot of nerve saying four more years,” he added. “Well, we’ve got news for Bush and Quayle. Four more months and it’s outta there.”

Gore began his day with an early morning chat with about 25 firefighters at a southside Chicago fire station and later attended a picnic in Cincinnati with his running mate, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton.