Check out Videos from AFT’s Presidential Forum

by Tula Connell, Jul 10, 2007

Bill Richardson
John Edwards
Joe Biden

AFT hosted a presidential forum in May, in which union members submitted questions to the candidates. (And hey, the idea was so good, we’re doing the same.) Click here to submit your questions for the AFL-CIO Presidential Candidates Forum on Aug. 7. The winning questions will be selected from the top five vote-getters from each of two rounds and sumbitted to the moderator for the nationally televised forum.

The 1.4 million-member AFT just released four video clips based on the event. Three clips highlight the candidates speaking about unions, the war in Iraq and early childhood education. The fourth video spotlights union members interacting with the candidates.

Here’s a sample of the event, with candidates describing the stands they would take toward unions if elected president.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson:

I would be a pro-union president. I believe that the American workforce is stronger if you’re allowed to unionize, more productive, more protected in terms of health care and wages and daily struggles.

Former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.):

Envision a president of the United States who doesn’t quietly support the organized labor movement but a president who will walk out on the White House lawn and talk to America about how important organized labor is…not just to the union members, but to the entire country—to having economic security in this country, to having a democracy that’s based on the middle class. Explaining to America…what the union movement meant to building the middle class in this country.

Sen. Joe Biden (Del.):

The next president of the United States better be able to utter the word ‘union,’  they better be able to say ‘union.’ Not organized labor, not working men and women, ‘union.’ Because we Democrats have been reluctant to use that word. And when we use it, we tend to only use it when we talk to you all. I use it at the Chamber of Commerce, I use it on the floor of the Senate, I use it when I speak to the AMA. This is the first time…we have a chance to build the union movement. Not stop the erosion, build a union movement.

AFT members such as Alan Grant found the interactive forum, where he spoke directly with the candidates, far more personal than similar events he’s attended. Grant, a member of Education Minnesota and kindergarten teacher for 36 years who now works at an early childhood center in the school district, puts it this way:

I’ve been in those big arenas where they come and speak and you’re just one of thousands of people. But this was more intimate, they were answering our questions, not just my questions but questions from our executive board. It made the candidates real people.

Print This Article | E-Mail This Article |Comments (0)