Archive for October, 2006
Down to the Wire: Remember Texas?
In the first of our “Down to the Wire” series featuring union mobilization reports from the states, Ed Sills, communications director at the Texas AFL-CIO, gives us an overview of the national and state races in the home of former exterminator and ex-member of Congress Tom DeLay. Sills will follow up on the action in Texas with a blog Nov. 8. Any union member, retiree or member of the media who would like to sign up for the Texas AFL-CIO news e-mail should e-mail Sills at ed@texasaflcio.org.
Even with outstanding election atmospherics entering the Nov. 7 election, Texas remains a tough place for the union movement to achieve a seismic political shift. As Texas AFL-CIO President Emmett Sheppard has said, it took us several election cycles to get into the predicament in which we find ourselves, and it will probably take us several to get out.
Video Games: Playing Whack a Candidate in Ohio
Blogger Adam Connor hit the Ohio campaign trail yesterday and tagged along with a candidate caravan that included union-backed Ted Strickland for governor, Sherrod Brown for U.S. Senate, Victoria Wulsin for Congress in Ohio’s 2nd District, Jennifer Brunner for secretary of state and Rich Cordray for state treasurer.
At an evening rally in Waverly, he notices the caravan has been joined by an opposition “tracker” who is videotaping the event hoping to capture an embarrassing misstep, such as the video clip of Sen. George Allen’s (R-Va.) racially-tinged “macaca” reference to an American college student of Indian descent.
Two Guys: Millions of Americans Without Health Care. Billions of Dollars Wasted on Iraq
Joe and Jim are back today, and they’re outraged. Outraged that the Bush administration is spending $6 billion a month in Iraq while 47 million Americans have no health insurance.
Members of the Transport Workers (TWU) are sharing their thoughts with us on the economy, health care and more this week, from the local diner and wherever else working people gather.
Says Jim:
Halliburton is getting rich, big Dick Cheney is getting rich. He loves it. He was the CEO of Halliburton. How can they justify $6 billion a month for a war and no health care at home?
Labor 2006—Using the Home Phones
 |
|
|
Letter Carriers Chief of Staff Jim Sauber pitches in to deliver-via phone-the Labor 2006 message at the phone banks at the AFL-CIO headquarters last week.
|
We’ve told you about worksite leafleting in Ohio, door-knocking in Pennsylvania, phone banking in Wisconsin and Labor 2006 political action all around the country as union volunteers and Working America members mobilize to get out the vote Nov. 7.
But right here in Washington, D.C., in the heart of the AFL-CIO building, past the cafeteria and snack machines, more than 800 folks have pulled up a chair and picked up a phone. They’re urging union family voters in key states to support worker-friendly candidates and to cast their ballots on Election Day.
Kathy Smith, an AFL-CIO staffer whose normal title is special projects coordinator for the Human Resources Department, and AFL-CIO Legislative Rep Byron Charlton are running the 40-plus line phone bank that has made more than 45,000 calls since late September.
Lawsuit Settlement Could Save U.S. Consumers $4 Billion on Drugs
A tentative settlement in a class-action suit could end up saving American consumers as much as $4 billion next year when they go to buy brand-name drugs at their local drugstores.
The settlement would end a prescription drug price-fixing scheme that costs union members and others billions of dollars annually.
Blogging the Campaign Trail
In a week and a day, we’ll find out if the nation’s electoral map has changed and if working families have wrested control of Congress away from President Bush and his rubber-stamp majority.
The punditry has declared some 40 races as pivotal and many of those are in districts long-thought to be Bush country. This week, blogger Adam Conner will be dropping in on seven races in the triangle where Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana meet.
7 Days @ Minimum Wage: From Blog World to Classroom
High school teacher Kat Dietrich was so moved by the stories at the 7 Days @ Minimum Wage video blog (vlog) from the AFL-CIO and Acorn that she made viewing them a special assignment for her ninth- and 10th-grade students in Gilroy, Calif. She says she asked her students:
What do you think it would be like to raise a family on the minimum wage? For extra credit, I assigned them to go to the website and view at least three of the episodes and then write a reflection paper on it.
Diner Talk: The Bush Economy and Outsourcing
At last, working America has its own political commentators—no fancy hairdos, no spin-doctoring, just a good reality slap from the heart of the middle class.
They’re Joe and Jim, two regular guys, dedicated members of the Transport Workers. We first met them at a Labor 2006 walk in Philadelphia a few weeks ago, going door to door to get out the vote for worker-friendly candidates. We captured an unscripted moment and posted a little YouTube video clip of Joe and Jim—Two Guys on Bush, talking about how bad the Bush administration has been for working families—and their humor, commitment, insight and sharp commentary won the Two Guys a place in a lot of hearts.
Granny, Get Your Gun…Oops, Make That Donuts
Seems like in Allison Park, Pa., near Pittsburgh, the biggest threat to public security is 40 senior citizens carrying donuts. Staff at the district office of Rep. Melissa Hart (R-Pa.) called for three armed police from nearby Hampton Township to disperse the group of seniors, all members of the Pennsylvania Alliance for Retired Americans (PARA), who sought to deliver donuts to Hart’s office to protest the new Medicare law.
7 Days @ Minimum Wage: 15 Million Workers Trapped at or Near Minimum Wage
 |
|
 |
|
If Mallory McCarty wins a pay raise from her current minimum wage of $5.15 an hour to the $6.85 an hour as called for in a Nov. 7 Ohio ballot initiative, she says she’d finally have some extra money to set aside to learn new skills:
I either hang clothes, cashier, put clothes up or I am a sorter….You stand all day and I get a 45-minute break.
But all that hard work barely covers McCarty’s basic living costs:
I pay $200 every two weeks for rent and food, gas, lights and I have a phone bill…and I have to buy two bus passes to get to work….I have to watch what I spend every check. I’m living pay by pay.
Cleveland resident McCarty, who is the final feature on the video blog (vlog) “7 Days @ Minimum Wage,” sponsored by the AFL-CIO and ACORN, is among millions of workers looking to this fall’s election with anticipation as voters in Ohio and five other states vote on ballot initiatives to raise their states’ minimum wage. They also will have the opportunity to send people to Congress who will raise the federal minimum wage.
