Hot Dog! Working Families Bring the Heat to Lawmakers
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Head to West Virginia this weekend if you’re looking for a cheap and tasty meal and an opportunity to tell lawmakers to stop protecting tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations and instead focus on fixing the nation’s job crisis.
The West Virginia AFL-CIO and allied groups are holding 10 “Help the Really Rich Hot Dog Sales” around the Mountain State Saturday and Sunday. In honor of the 76th anniversary of President Franklin Roosevelt’s signing of the Social Security Act, the dogs will go for just 5 cents each—don’t know if chili and slaw are extra.
Larry Matheney, secretary-treasurer of the West Virginia AFL-CIO, says the sales will promote
a tongue-in-cheek solution to raising revenue without asking the really rich or tax-dodging corporations to pay their fair share of taxes… reducing the debt one hot dog a time.
The proceeds will be turned into the “U.S. Bureau of the Public Debt.” Read the rest of this entry »
Union Activists Getting Out the Vote Around the Country
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Here’s a quick look at some upcoming AFL-CIO Labor 2010 actions in Nevada, Connecticut and Florida and reports on recent activity in Wisconsin, Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
On Saturday, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler will join Connecticut union activists in get-out-the-vote (GOTV) neighborhood walks to convey how Republican Senate candidate Linda McMahon thinks Congress should consider lowering the minimum wage.
Early next week, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will be in Nevada, where extremist and tea party favorite Sharron Angle is opposing U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Among other outrageous positions, Angle wants to phase out and privatize Social Security and Medicare. Trumka will join union workers in Reno and Las Vegas for worksite leafleting and other actions.
Among other stops, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker will be in Florida for a “twofer”—GOTV activities in Miami and Palm Beach and she’ll throw a jab at mostly Florida resident John Raese, who’s running as a Republican for the Senate in West Virginia and has sparked controversy over his recruitment of “hicky” blue-collar workers for his campaign ad.
How Do We Build an Enduring Progressive Voting Majority?
At the America’s Future Now conference, nearly all of us are focused on one Big Picture question: How can we build on the progressive election victories of 2008 so we can make long-lasting change that improves people’s lives?
At one of the day’s sessions, “A New and Enduring Progressive Majority?” experts agreed that, while demographic trends are pointing in the right direction for progressives, it’s important to give constituencies the information and the tools they need—not only during the election cycle but also during battles over policy and governance.
One of the panelists, Karen Nussbaum, executive director of Working America, the AFL-CIO community affiliate for workers who don’t have a union on the job, spoke about ways to reach voters who have deep economic concerns but who don’t have the advantage of being a union member to help mobilize them as a voting constituency.
Union members have access to two things that their neighbors don’t—good, reliable information and a sense of power in the economy.
