Pennsylvania ATU Members Spread Word About Obama’s Working Family Policies

At the West Mifflin Port Authority Garage, ATU Local 85 shop steward Ted Kielur talks with ATU Local 85 members Ron Kachmer and Betty Cunningham about Sen. Barack Obama’s working-family policies.

Frank Snyder, AFL-CIO state director in Pennsylvania, reports on the presidential race.  

Early yesterday, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 85 Recording Secretary Mike Harms and shop steward Ted Kielur stood outside the West Mifflin Port Authority Bus Garage near Pittsburgh and distributed worksite leaflets to members as they came into work between 5:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. 

Harms says:

We are leafleting to educate our members about Sen. Barack Obama’s policies that support working families. Working people need to elect someone who will focus on issues that are relevant to them—and Barack Obama is that candidate.

It is especially important that transportation workers understand that Sen. John McCain supports the contracting-out of public-sector jobs even though it often means a loss in wages and benefits for workers. Obama, on the other hand, supports public-sector work and workers.

Harms and Kielur agree that the member-to-member contact involved in worksite leafleting is crucial to educating union members about issues. By standing out here and passing out the worksite leaflets, “we bring the discussion right to the members,” Kielur says. 

When they see the union supporting a candidate, our members will then take the time to understand why. Our members trust the union and they trust other union members and that is why it is our job to make sure all union members understand how important it is to elect Barack Obama.

Local 85 union members coming into work early in the morning appreciated the worksite leaflets, too. Members like Leonard Jatkowski, who says:

It is so important that union members are out here this morning talking about our candidate Barack Obama. We have a lot at stake this election, so we need to step up and make sure all members understand the issues.

Harms says the local has made educating members about the candidates’ positions a top priority:

We need our members to know how damaging McCain’s policies are for labor and how good Barack Obama’s will be for working families.

Kielur agrees and says:

We need to elect Barack Obama this year because he supports all the labor principles and he knows we need to preserve the middle class and that supporting unions is the way to achieve that. So, in turn, union members need to get out and elect him this year.

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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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