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Along with being members of unions, Dan Poling of the Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) and Ralph Caraway Sr. of the IUE/CWA have something else in common: They are new lawmakers with a focus on working family issues.
Caraway was just elected to the Tyler (Texas) City Council and Poling is serving his first term in the West Virginia House of Delegates.
(If you are a union member who holds public office and would like to share your experiences on the campaign trail and in office, submit a comment or drop us a line at aflcio@blognews.org.We’d love to hear from you).
Caraway, from IUE/CWA Local 86782, says keeping jobs in Tyler is one of his main goals as council member. The town’s biggest employer, Goodyear Tire, has threatened to close its Tyler plant.
A city official with a focus on keeping jobs in Tyler, Texas is something we must have.
Poling, of Parkersburg, plans to focus on living wage and health care issues.
The crisis in expensive health care is something I will address. I’d like to see everyone have access to affordable, comprehensive healthcare. (Read more about Poling in the Painters and Allied Trades Journal.)
Union members have been campaigning for and winning local and state offices for years. For the past several election cycles, the AFL-CIO has encouraged and trained union members in the nuts and bolts of successful campaigns. After all, who understands working family issues—health care, good jobs, education—better than union members? In fact, around 3,500 union members have won office in recent years.
Some 450 union members have been elected to local and state office after participating in the New Jersey State AFL-CIO’s union candidate program. The most recent are nine school board wins and three city council seat victories last month. The program includes a Labor Candidates School in which union members learn the political skills need to mount successful election bids.
Bill Looby, political director for the Illinois AFL-CIO, himself a recently elected school board member, says at least 200 union members are serving in political office throughout the state, including four union members recently elected to the Chicago City Council. He currently is surveying city and county bodies to get a complete headcount.
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IUE-CWA Local 86782 is very proud of Ralph Caraway! Please visit our website at iuelocal782.com
Quick Correction: Goodyear is not Tyler’s biggest employer. Trane/American Standard, which IUE-CWA Local 86782 represents, employs more people than Goodyear (Trane employs about 1,400 in the bargaining unit and Goodyear about 1,000).
According to information I just received from the Tyler Economic Development Council, Trinity Mother Frances Hospital/Trinity Mother Frances Health System is the largest employer in the city of Tyler. Both Trane and Goodyear are among the top employers, but Goodyear is not the largest employer and Trane is, in fact, larger. However, the disapperance of Goodyear’s payroll from East Texas would create a severe hole in the Tyler/Smith County economy.
Union members thinking of running should go to:
http://www.americasolidarity.org/