Milk for the Kids or Fuel for the Car?

Phil Hayes, Colorado Labor 2008 state director, talked with union members at a recent rally in Denver by working families, who tell him just how hard it is to pay for food and fuel in this nation’s economic mess.

Colorado union members, families and community advocates turned out in Denver to send a message to John McCain: Start supporting working families and saying “NO” to Big Oil!

At the rally, union members from AFT, CWA, GMP, IUOE, IUPAT, NATCA and SMWIA had a clear message: It’s time to turn around America. Oil companies are making out like bandits, while skyrocketing prices at the pump are battering working families. Manny Flores, a union member from Laborers (LIUNA) Local 720, puts it this way:

This is ridiculous. Two months ago, I spent $30 per week on gas for work. Now I have to pay over $60 per week. You have a choice—fill the tank, or buy milk for the kids. If I have $50, I spend $20 for gas, and the rest for bread, eggs, and milk. With this economy, you can’t live on what you make.

It’s clearer than ever that we’re headed in the wrong direction.

Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 9 member Angela Kent has had it with McCain and Big Oil.

Gas prices are outrageous. With what I make, I used to take my kids out for little extras, to the movies or to dinner, two or three times a month. Now it’s only once every three months.

Flores is feeling the same financial pressure.

We stay at home a lot. We don’t have extra money. There’s no money left. It doesn’t matter where—the park, theater, restaurant—there is no money to get you there.

Bush, McCain and their rich oil friends may not be struggling, but most of us are just trying to make ends meet. Steve King, a member of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) Local 79, knows “gas prices are too high for everybody,” and he’s doing something about it.

We have to stand up and let them know we don’t like it. McCain’s all about big corporations and doesn’t care about the working family.

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