Sweeney: ‘We Can Create a Better America’

by Seth Michaels, Aug 26, 2008

Annette Lewis and her son, Marcus, Dan Luevano, and Steve Skvara joined AFL-CIO President Sweeney during his address at the Democratic National Convention.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney gave a high-profile and impassioned speech tonight at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, focusing on a top issue in the election: turning around our struggling economy. 

Sweeney said 28 million active and retired union members and their families will mobilize this fall to elect Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden and help bring about the change America needs. Sweeney put the key issues of the campaign in the spotlight by highlighting the experiences of real people, members of working families whose lives are affected every day by the policies set in Washington.  

Three workers appeared with Sweeney: Annette Lewis, a single mother whose son, Marcus, is starting 6th grade this fall; Steve Skvara, a retired steelworker, who lost his health care and saw his pension cut when his former company went bankrupt; and Dan Luevano, an electrical worker, who was fired for trying to form a union and bargain. They’ve all run up against the callous, corporate-friendly policies that George W. Bush and John McCain have imposed on the country. 

Their struggles reflect those of millions around the country, Sweeney said, and it’s for them that we need to elect Obama and bring pro-worker leadership to the White House. 

These are good people, strong people. They work hard and believe in their country, their faith and the future. They can’t afford four more years like the last eight. They need change, and that’s why they all support Barack Obama for president of the United States. 

They deserve a better America—an America where every worker can count on a good job, where every family has health care, where every senior enjoys a decent retirement. 

They deserve an America that works for everyone, where all workers have a free choice to join unions, to collectively bargain, to lift up their communities and our economy and build a better life for their children. 

We must not put up with political leaders who act only on behalf of Big Business and its lobbyists, he said, with prosperity out of reach for everyone else. By pulling together, workers can take back the country and get it moving in the right direction. 

Brothers and sisters, this is our chance to create much-needed change for young people like Marcus and rebuild this country we love. We can create the better America that Annette, Steve and Dan—and all of us—deserve. A country whose heart is as big as the hearts of its people. A country that lifts up our families here at home and lights up the world with our vision and values. 

Through an unprecedented, national grassroots mobilization of millions of members and their families, the union movement will be at the forefront of making sure we keep America’s promise. 

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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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