Mortgage Crisis Fuels Missouri Working Families at McCain Event

Randy Kiser, AFL-CIO senior field representative for the Midwest Region, joined more than 70 union activists outside a John McCain fundraiser in St. Louis yesterday and describes the event for us. 

Carrying “Turn Around America” signs, dozens of union members along with staff from the Missouri AFL-CIO, distributed literature highlighting the nation’s escalating mortgage crisis and McCain’s votes in the U.S. Senate that have harmed working families. Inside the event at the Hilton, donors paid $1,000 to get into the reception and $2,300 for a photo opportunity with McCain (those tax cuts for the wealthy that McCain supports clearly came in handy here).   

Outside, Missouri AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Herb Johnson and Greater St. Louis Labor Council President John Ebeling joined union members from AFM, APWU, CWA, IUPAT, SEIU, UAW, UFCW and USW. Worker Pat Williams spoke passionately to the media on how the housing crisis personally affected her family. 

Media coverage of our event included the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, National Public Radio, Metro Radio Network, the Labor Tribune and local CBS and FOX news stations. 

McCain raised more than $600,000 at this event, according to local media. But the labor movement accomplished something far more valuable: We held John McCain accountable for voting with President Bush 95 percent of the time in 2007 on issues that matter for working families. Both Bush and McCain opposed health care for children, fought an increase in the federal minimum wage and attacked the Employee Free Choice Act. When the Bush McClone comes back, we’ll be ready to greet him again.

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