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New Mexico Unions Ready to Elect Obama |
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Don Manning, Labor 2008 state director for New Mexico, reports on the presidential race.
Over the past weekend, the New Mexico Federation of Labor held its annual Committee on Political Education (COPE) convention. At the top of the priority list: getting New Mexico union members energized and mobilized to elect Sen. Barack Obama as president.
Union activists in this key state are excited to rally behind Obama and to educate fellow members about his record on health care and the economy. Obama has earned a 98 percent AFL-CIO lifetime voting record on working family issues in the U.S. Senate.
Christine Trujillo, president of the New Mexico Federation of Labor, says Obama would take the country in the right direction on the issues that matter most.
Barack has a strong record on health care and the economy. He’s the best person to lead us in the coming years.
Here’s what some other convention attendees had to say.
Robin Gould, president of Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 7076:
For the first time in my lifetime, we have a candidate who truly is of the people, by the people, for the people. He has the ability to inspire and create unity, and his leadership and support of the labor movement will take us places we’ve never been before.
Ray Diaz, Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) Local 49 business manager:
Sen. Obama was a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act while it was going through Congress. He understands the important issues for working families and would be a powerful ally if he were president.
Ed Miscus, AFSCME Council 18:
As a veteran, I support Barack Obama because he respects veterans and provides them with the benefits they deserve. Sen. McCain opposed the 21st Century GI Bill.
The New Mexico Federation of Labor also has endorsed Rep. Tom Udall for the U.S. Senate and Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Lujan for the U.S. House.
For more information on Obama’s working family-friendly voting record, check out Meet Barack Obama.
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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.
6 Comments
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It is amazing how fast we run to become fools. Just say ‘Boo!’, meaning ‘McCain’ and we run like
silly children to the nearest exist, namely, Obama.
Other than generalities, which of the great issues of our time has he spoken about with anything more than his Presidential posturing.
It is mindblowing how fast and eager we are to sell ourselves to the Democrats for dirt cheap–in the name of ‘practicality’–always ‘practicality, of course! I mean, What else is there . . . right?
What passes for unions these days is a pleasure to our adversaries.
I am amazed with this mindless political rhetoric. The is no substance that I can see to what is being said just a more vigorous pace to socialism. Someone gave me a clever bumper sticker he made up the other day NOBama”08 maybe you will see these around as the election draws near.
Regardless whether you like it or not, the nominations for the presidency are over. We are left with just two choices and they are diametrically opposed as in “opposite poles.”
John McCain is Anti-Union. And what does that mean exactly? It means any new pro labor bills like your right to form a union would be vetoed when they come across his desk.
It would mean more conservative (anti-labor) judges appointed to the supreme court.
It would mean another “free” slave trade agreement with South America. Unfair and unbalanced without any provisions for employee safety, health or welfare. More manufacturing could head further south and be used as a hammer over Mexico’s head to extract further wage concessions so globalism and super capitalism can make multi-billionaires out of multi-millionaires while the rest of us here in the U.S. lose our jobs because we can’t compete against fifty cent an hour labor.
John McCain wants to streamline social security and medicare to balance the budget. The majority of working Americans have already lost their company provided pension plans. This makes us rely too heavily on social security but its all we’ve got. Most people who have managed to save a little in their 401K plans are heavily invested into stock mutual funds and have felt the wrath of the bear market. Privatization of social security would just be gambling with your retirement future.
There are many more important issues facing working Americans and none of these are mindless political rhetoric.
If you think unions are bad, try working 12 hour days on rotating shifts with forced over time in a non-union warehouse for $8.00 an hour with no benefits and see how you really like a “free market philosophy.” - a John McCain philosophy.
I don’t think unions are bad. I am a union official right now but I am also a thinker and a visionary so I tend to look at a much bigger picture than 99% of the rest of the masses. I realized a while ago that there are more than two candidates for president and Bob Barr is my choice this year, although this country will be stuck in the rut of only seeing the D’s and R’s for some time.
Obama, McCain and the AFL-CIO all support amnesty so in the long term the US worker will be working for less wages and benefits. From an economic stand point it is easier to bring our standard of living down than raise up the rest of the world. IT’S ALREADY HAPPENING!
At least McCain is talking about building nuclear power plants which would translate into jobs for my fellow workers in the construction trades while Obama doesn’t even want to drill for any more new oil in this country.
Now I realize that today the race is probably Obama’s to loose but it is still early. I wonder what the “October surprise” will be this year?
Living in Denver I get to hear a lot about the upcoming convention so there is some good comic relief. The DNCC is 11 million short on fund raising so they are scaling back the parties and other festivities. There is great humor with the catering requirements as to colors of foods not including garnishes, 50% fruits and vegetables per plate, no fried foods and the list goes on.
Two points worth addressing: So you think the building of more nuclear power plants is going to bring more jobs for the construction workers. Think again. It will not. It will only give more jobs to those willing to work for minimum wage, non-union jobs, and most Americans cannot afford to take those jobs. You want that.
Two: Obama is against drilling in areas that would have a devastating environmental impact, such as near the coastline, where McCain wants to drill. Even if this happens, the economic advantage would be minimal and several years away. This is not how to solve the energy crisis.
It would seem to me that no matter which candidate wins the American workers and their families lose. McCain, besides being Mr. Free-Trader, wants to give illegals amnesty and Obama not only wants to give illegals a ‘path to citizenship’ (a fancy phrase for amnesty) but he also thinks we should make sure that our children speak Spanish.
The USA as we know it is disappearing before our very eyes and our politicians don’t seem to mind. I suppose they plan to relocate their families to some other ‘free’ country once ours has finally sunk into the same muck as every other third world nation. What a sad scenario.