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Building and Construction Trades Members Craft Support for Obama |
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With only 29 days to go before the election, it’s more important than ever for union members to volunteer with the Labor 2008 political program, and members of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) are turning out to make sure pro-worker candidates win this fall.
Sen. Barack Obama is offering real solutions to the challenges facing America’s working families, but Sen. John McCain, who thinks the campaign shouldn’t be “about issues,” hopes he can count on dishonest smears to distract voters from what’s really at stake.
Through the AFL-CIO Labor 2008 political mobilization program, union members are connecting directly with undecided voters and giving them the truth about Obama’s pro-worker record and McCain’s disastrous economic policy agenda.
Sean McGarvey, BCTD secretary-treasurer, says the nation’s economic crisis tops the concerns of union members this election. The building trades are particularly hard hit by the housing crisis and are already seeing the effects of the financial meltdown, as the credit markets are essential to new construction.
The financial crisis makes it clear we all need to work hard and elect candidates who want to make the economy work again for working families, McGarvey says (see video).
Our members are starting to understand how it affects them right here on Main Street: Their jobs, their communities, their ability to maintain their mortgages and put food on their table….They’re starting to feel, right where they live, there in their community, how it affects them. When you tell them that the way to work ourselves out of this is to elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden to the White House, they’re more likely to come on board, to volunteer, to put in the extra time that’s required for us to be successful.
When union members volunteer and take part in the Labor 2008 effort, McGarvey says, they carry out the crucial face-to-face, member-to-member contact that helps build a strong, pro-working family vote.
It’s very important that we have the opportunity to explain the policy positions, and get them in a place where they put the economic security of their family, their children and their communities first….Once we have the ability to explain that about Barack Obama, answer those questions, our members overwhelmingly support Obama, but you have to take the time and put in the effort to have those conversations.
McGarvey says that electing Obama and pro-worker Senate candidates will make the difference in passing legislation that improves workers’ lives and strengthens the economy from the bottom up, like the Employee Free Choice Act.
Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) President Mike Sullivan says the union movement’s nationwide mobilization is reaching hundreds of thousands of union members.
Our members are out there working every day to see to it that Barack Obama is elected—knocking on doors, passing out leaflets, they’ll be working on election day getting people to the polls, they’ll be doing the thing necessary to see to it that we win this election.
In Wisconsin, the Bricklayers (BAC) are one of the unions carrying out this crucial work (see video). Gary Burns of BAC Local 7 and Jim Vick of BAC Local 13 visited a worksite in Beloit in the early morning hours last week to hand out leaflets and talk with workers about the issues at stake this election. Burns says the leaflets allow union members to get engaged with each other about the important issues in the election.
We’re getting out and we’re contacting all of our members this way. A lot of them, they’re taking them and putting them in their lunch boxes, so at break time and lunch time they’ll be able to sit down and talk about it.
Barack is the man we need in office to protect our hours and protect our union.
In Pennsylvania, members of the Electrical Workers (IBEW) are going door to door in the critical swing area of western Pennsylvania, discussing McCain’s plan to tax health care benefits and other important economic issues in the election. Frank Telesz, the business manager for IBEW Local 712, says that when you talk with undecided members about the economy, they understand that Obama will fight for them.
When we get the actual information out there, one on one, with our union members, they do believe us on all the issues out there that affect working families.
The unions of the BCTD are working around the clock, and around the country, to get out the truth about Obama’s support for workers and McCain’s poor record on the most important issues.
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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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