Trumka Rallies, Leaflets with Union Members in New Mexico

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka joined New Mexico union members for an early morning get-out-the-vote leaflet action, before speaking to a union crowd at the IBEW hall.

Don Manning, Labor 2008 state director for New Mexico, sends us this report on a GOTV rally with AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka and union members. 

The Electrical Workers (IBEW) hall in Albuquerque was ablaze in union pride yesterday, as more than 120 union members came out in their orange, green, blue, yellow and black T-shirts to attend a rally with AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka. Trumka is traveling across the United States, visiting the states critical in the upcoming election. New Mexico is proud and honored to be among the most critical states for presidential, Senate and congressional elections.

Unions present were AFGE, AFM, AFSCME, AFT, CWA, IAM, IBEW, IBT, ILWU, Iron Workers, IUPAT, LIUNA, NALC, NATCA, OP&CMIA, OPEIU, SMWIA, UA, UMWA and USW.

Martin Heinrich, a candidate for Congressional District (CD) 1, and Harry Teague, a candidate for CD 2, spoke at the rally to an enthusiastic crowd. Heinrich is in a very close race, but we continue to push hard in CD 1. As Heinrich said:

Tens of thousands of New Mexicans have voted early this year. The more we continue to vote early, the more likely we will wake up on Nov. 5 with a clean sweep.

Teague puts it this way:

Union folks are the reason that Obama, Udall, Lujan, Heinrich and myself are going to win in November. Working families need change, and we are going to give it to you.

Teague is also in a close race, but our Labor 2008 political mobilization team in CD 2 is making sure unions are present at every Teague event so that he feels our support.

When Trumka came to the podium, he spoke with passion about the 40,000 manufacturing plants closed in the United States since 2000, and the 350,000 manufacturing jobs lost. Working families can’t afford health care or decent pensions.

He pointed out that while the current administration claims not to have enough money to fund our educational system, somehow we were able to find $700 billion to bail out private firms on Wall Street. Said Trumka:

Working families are not the priority in Washington right now. But we are going to change Washington and make working families number one.

Trumka expressed his heartfelt support for Obama.

Obama understands that it was the labor movement who rebuilt America after WWII, and given the chance, we will rebuild it again, starting when Obama signs the Employee Free Choice Act.

After the speech, Trumka told me that seeing such an excited crowd of good union people motivated him to continue his trek across the United States. We want him to know that listening to such an inspirational speaker motivates us to continue our fight here in New Mexico.

_____________________________________

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.

		Become a Fan on Facebook			Follow Us on Twitter			Subscribe to YouTube			Subscribe to Blog RSS

Print This Article | E-Mail This Article |Comments (0)