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Missouri Union Members Get Ready for 2008 Elections

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by Seth Michaels, Apr 25, 2008

Photo credit: Bernard Pollack
Union members from across Missouri attend political training in St. Louis.

Randy Kiser, director of the Missouri AFL-CIO, reports on Labor 2008 training in St. Louis.

More than 50 local union coordinators from across Missouri and nearly a dozen more from across the country are participating in a two-day political training for Labor 2008, the AFL-CIO union movement’s political program.  

The local union coordinator training includes workshops on member-to-member organizing, volunteer recruitment and media training. With the presidential race, a governor’s race, contested congressional races and dozens of state and local races, working families in Missouri are facing high stakes in 2008. 

Local union coordinators are crafting worksite leaflets highlighting the economic proposals of  John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. They are getting set to send their first member mobilization letter and are being trained on strategies for recruiting activists from their local unions to participate in Labor 2008 walks May 17 and in member-to-member phone banks.  

David Tolliver, local union coordinator for Transport Workers (ATU) Local 788, was among the union leaders present. 

I think this training was extremely effective. It helped prep me to have important and tough conversations with my co-workers about candidates and their stances on core economic issues.

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1 Comment

  1. awsum87 on 28.04.2008 at 08:45 (Reply)

    Subject: In just 16 Months

    Part 1

    In just 16 months.. Remember the election in 2006?
    Thought you might like to read the following:
    A little over 16 MONTHS ago:

    1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
    2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
    3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%.

    Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen:

    1) Consumer confidence plummet;
    2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $3.50 a gallon;
    3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase);
    4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value evaporate
    (stock and mutual fund losses);
    5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars;
    6) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.

    America voted for change in 2006, and we got it!

    Remember it’s Congress that makes law not the President. He has to work with what’s handed to him.

    Quote of the Day……..”My friends, we live in the greatest nation inthe history of the world. I hope you’ll join with me as we try to
    change it.”
    – Barack Obama

    Part 2:

    Taxes…Whether Democrat or a Republican you will find these statistics enlightening and amazing.

    http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.html

    Taxes under Clinton 1999 Taxes under Bush 2008
    Single earns 30K- tax $8,400 Single earns 30K - tax $4,500
    Single earns 50K tax=$14,000 Single earns 50K - tax $12,500
    Single earns 75K-tax $23,250 Single earns 75K - tax $18,750
    Married earns 60K-tax $16,800 Married earns 60K-tax $9,000
    Married earns 75K-tax $21,000 Married earns 75K-tax $18,750
    Married earns 125K-tax $38,750 Married earns 125K-tax $31,250

    Both democratic candidates will return to the higher tax rates

    It is amazing how many people that fall into the categories above think Bush is screwing them and Bill Clinton was the greatest President ever.

    If Obama or Hillary are elected, they both say they will repeal the Bush tax cuts and a good portion of the people that fall into the categories above can’t wait for it to happen. This is like the movie The Sting with Paul Newman; you scam somebody out of some money and they don’t even know what happened.

    PART 3:

    You think the war in Iraq is costing us too much? Read this:

    Boy, am I confused. I have been hammered with the propaganda that it is the Iraq war and the war on terror that is bankrupting us. I now find that to be RIDICULOUS.

    I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again until they are read so many times that the reader gets sick of reading them.

    I have included the URL’s for verification of all the following facts.

    1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens
    each year by state governments.

    Verify at: http://tinyurl.com/zob77

    2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.

    Verify at: http://www.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

    3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal
    aliens.
    Verify at:
    http://www.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

    4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary
    school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!
    Verify at:
    http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html

    5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the
    American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.

    Verify at
    http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

    6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.

    Verify at:
    http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

    7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.

    Verify at:
    http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

    8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers.

    Verify at: http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html

    9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.

    Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

    10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that’s
    two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular,
    their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US
    Verify at:
    http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html

    11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border.

    Verify at: Homeland Security Report:
    http://tinyurl.com/t9sht

    12. The National Policy Institute, “estimated that the total cost of
    mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.”
    Verify at:
    http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf

    13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin.

    Verify at:
    http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm

    14. “The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex
    Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States .”

    Verify at:
    http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml

    The total cost is a whopping $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.

    Are we THAT stupid?

    If this doesn’t bother you then just forget these facts and vote for Clinton or Obama. If, on the other hand, it does raise the hair on the back of your neck, I hope you forward it to every legal resident in the country including every representative in Washington , D.C. - five times a week for as long as it takes to restore some semblance of intelligence in our policies and enforcement thereof!!!!!!

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