Nurses Union, IBEW Give Support to Obama

by Seth Michaels, Jun 26, 2008

Two unions, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) and the Electrical Workers (IBEW), have endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president.

The 725,000-member IBEW offered an endorsement today, and IBEW President Edwin Hill committed to “an all-out push” to get members involved in the election.

The issues are clear. We as a people face difficult choices on health care, energy policy and building jobs and opportunity in a world increasingly bound by economic and environmental issues. Barack Obama offers positive leadership to navigate our way into the future instead of continuing the failures of the past.

The 80,000 member CNA/NNOC offered its endorsement after a vote of its 35-member board. Melinda Markowitz, RN, says the endorsement is based on the “stark difference” between Obama and likely Republican presidential nominee John McCain on the issues of health care and workers’ rights.

From the shredding of our public safety net, to the transfer of critically needed domestic resources for an irresponsible war, to the abandonment of environmental and labor law safeguards over the past eight years, the need for change in Washington is paramount.

We have been impressed with Sen. Obama’s efforts to broaden, enrich, and revive our democracy by bringing more Americans into our political process and giving them a sense of hope and confidence for a more just, more humane America.

This morning, the AFL-CIO endorsed Obama and launched a new website, Meet Barack Obama, to educate and mobilize union members. This fall, the AFL-CIO is carrying out an unprecedented grassroots mobilization to elect a working family-friendly Congress and president.

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Paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Political Contributions Committee, www.aflcio.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

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