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Welcome to Ohio, Sen. McCain. Here’s What Workers Have to Say
Today, John McCain is arriving in Dayton, Ohio, to announce his running mate. He’s hoping to arrive to great fanfare and win over southern Ohioans. However, working families have a message: It’s time to take a closer look at McCain and his record.
The AFL-CIO is reaching out to 45,000 union activists in Ohio with a new video. The video gives some workers in Dayton and southern Ohio the chance to have their say on McCain and where he’d take the country. Here are just a few examples:
John McCain is out of touch with the middle class worker in this country.
–Dale Herzog, St. Mary’s, Ohio
His ideas are just the same ones that Bush has had for eight years.
–Norma Schlosser, Kettering, Ohio
Everything that the American working man stands for, John McCain is against.
–Wesley Wells, Dayton, Ohio
In Ohio and around the country, union volunteers will go door to door next week to educate members and their families about McCain and his record.
McCain has a lot to explain to the working men and women who are looking for solutions to the economic problems they face: stagnant wages, disappearing jobs and a broken health care system, for starters.
Ohio has been particularly hard-hit over the past several years on the economic front, with its jobless rate hitting a 15-year high. According to reports by the Economic Policy Institute, Ohio lost nearly 50,000 jobs over a decade due to NAFTA and has lost more than 66,000 jobs to China since 2001.
Ohio’s housing market has also been hit hard, with foreclosures shooting up 88 percent from 2006 to 2007. More than 150,000 homes were foreclosed in Ohio in 2007, and the housing crisis isn’t getting any easier for families. Southern Ohio may face the loss of 8,000 more jobs if DHL closes operations at its facility in Wilmington.
What McCain has been offering to Ohio so far isn’t going to cut it. His policies and priorities reflect a continuation of the Bush administration. McCain claimed we’ve made “great progress economically” and that the last eight years have been “a pretty good prosperous time.” When it comes to trade, health care, Social Security and the economy, his proposed policies are sadly out of touch.
Ohio’s working families have gotten a raw deal from the Bush administration and its economic agenda that has helped big corporations and left everyone else behind. Will McCain continue to offer more of the same—or will he start fighting for the rest of us?
That’s what Ohio’s workers want to know, and they deserve an answer.
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6 Comments
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John McCain/Sarah Palin ’08!
There are just too many unanswered questions about Obama. If Bush is opposed to everything working people stand for must I assume that working people are pro-abortion? Where did Obama come from all of a sudden?
I am retired. I was a member of United Steelworkers. My grandfather was (a long time ago) president of the Steelworkers local. My mother was United Packinghouse, AFL-CIO, and a labor organizer. My credentials are solid.
Barach Obama is in no way qualified to be President of the United States. His inspirational speech notwithstanding, he is an empty suit, a puppet of forces larger than any politician. Beware.
I think it is a good thing that union members are going to educate other union members and their families. But I think they must do much more. I think they need to educate other Americans who aren’t union about how neccessary it is to defeat John McCain. I rthink it needs to be done without a lot of fanfare about unions. Many of these people have been subjected anti union propaganda by their employers. But I’m sure most of them are interested in ending free trade agreements that take jobs away from America. I’m sure most of these people will be interested in health care, Social Security, and Medicare. I’m sure many will be interested in ending the war in Iraq, and bringing the troops home to their familes. I’ sure most people will be interested in regulating electricity, insurance co’s. banks, Wall ST. , and multinational Corporations. I know quite a few people who want all these things, but still are not disposed to vote for Sen. Obama.
I don’t think union workers alone can swing this election. It’s going to take all American workers.
We need the good manufacturing jobs back in America, and then the unions will grow once more, and renew many of the cities and towns that have suffered from free trade laws.
I have heard people who are in favor of free trade say that we need it because of exports I have asked the question” what do we export?” , and the only answer I have ever gotten from my Rep. Congressman, was grain and chemicals. Where are the cars appliances , machinery, clothing and other textiles, steel , Aluminum, and other fabricated products? I don’t see these being exported. I see them being imported ,and that has cost America millions upon millions of jobs.
It is time to change this,now.
Thank you
I think we get more Republican people commenting here than union workers. After what has happened to American workers and the middleclass, I cannot see why anyone could consider John McCain, If he gets elected, it will just about finish union workers in the United States. See what they do then I will be much worse than back in the 1920′s’ & 30′s. There are many things to consider than abortion. Abortion affects the families involved , but health care Social Security good jobs, and many other things affect everyone.
Thank you
McCain is no friend of the working class, and if you think Palin is, you are mistaken. Her husband is tightly connected to the oil industry. She is against alternative fuels. She is a creationist; does not believe in a woman’s right to chose, thinks the polar bears are a nuisance and demanded that they be removed from the endangered species list so that the oil companies could do more drilling in the arctic. See http://www.moveon.org for more information. She’s an ultra right wing conservative that is as clueless about what Americans want and need as McCain is.
It is annoying to hear people say they don’t know anything about Obama and that he is full of hot air, an “empty suit”, because nothing is further from the truth.
Those who fear, and I mean FEAR an Obama presidency are afraid of the many people who are different that make up this nation. They are afraid of the very ideas that give our nation diversity, strength and clarity. They are so afraid of change that they will cling to an candidate who is so static and rigid in his thinking that he would never ever consider that there are things that need to be fixed in this country. He thinks everything is going just smoothly and cannot see that our country is failing miserably because of the misguided, anti-environmental, anti American, anti-universal policies set forth by the Bush administration. He’s OK, so he thinks everyone is OK. Are you? I’m not. I cannot stomach the thought of four more years of the same kind of leadership. Our country cannot afford it.
McCain-Palin supporters are afraid of the true separation of church and state; they are afraid of bringing back a common sense government that is OF the people, BY the people and For the people – a government based on the idea that church and state should be explicitly separate, a government based on the idea that people have a right to control their own bodies and their own destiny, a government that believes torture is wrong and attacking sovereign nations without just cause is wrong, a government that believes that if it errors in its policies it has to undo the damage, a government that is willing to listen to its people and ADDRESS ITS NEEDS, notwithstanding. This is what Obama is speaking about. This is what Obama represents. I have his back, because I know and believe he has mine. This is the kind of leader I want. Settling for anyone else, is just settling, and we are better than that. We deserve better than that!
I also am a retired member of the United Steel wprkers. I worked many hard long hours many times in hazzardousand unhealthy conditions. It was mostly always very hot, and sometimes very cold. For every hour we worked there was portion of money set aside for retiree health benefits, that we did not receive in our hourly pay . we were garanteed company paid health benefits when we retired. Pres. Bush’s EEOC, has ruled that emplyers can cancel retiree benefits. What did I work for all those years, that could be taken away, without any recourse. Also the Bush appointed NLRB, has ruled in favor of companies, and against workers in most cases. Do we wat more of this and worse? I certainly don’t. Also his Supreme Court nominees have mostly ruled against consumers, and not leaving them much recouse when wronged.
I really don’t know what can prepare anyone to be president, but it seems that a well educated person ,who cares about the country and its people, and sees the problems that most Americans face should be just as qualified as anyone else. I think it is more important to care and work for ordinary Americans than anyone else. The wealthy and big corporations don’t have any trouble taking care or their selves. Everything is in their favor.
So I feel that Sen. Obama is qualified to be president. His views towards working people and middleclass Americans more closely represents my feelings.
Thank You