Working Families Need an Interim Senator for Massachusetts
Robert J. Haynes, president, Massachusetts AFL-CIO, writes that the state’s working families need two voices in the Senate during the upcoming weeks of debate on critical issues like health care.
Like the labor heroes we remembered on Labor Day, Ted Kennedy didn’t believe that the American dream was only reserved for the powerful and privileged. While Massachusetts workers lost our biggest voice and best champion for the little guy, we should not have to go without two U.S. senators for months on end. Working families cannot wait that long for full representation; not ever, but certainly not in these times with such monumental challenges facing our nation.
Kennedy believed it was wrong for people to have to risk their lives unnecessarily at work, to be stripped of their pensions, denied health care, or impoverished by the recklessness of banks. He believed a father with an ill child shouldn’t have to choose between being with that child and keeping his job. Now his lion’s voice has fallen silent, too soon.
Help Locked-Out Workers Get Through the Holidays, and More Bargaining News
Workers locked out at Progress Casting in Minnesota need your help for the holidays—and more news here from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
WORK STOPPAGES AND ACTIONS
GMP, Progress Casting: Many workers locked out since Oct. 27 from Progress Casting in Plymouth, Minn., are struggling to make ends meet as the holidays approach—and their health care coverage has been cut. Please support our brothers and sisters in their battle. The workers are represented by the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers (GMP) Local 63B, and the union has set up a fund to assist members. Donations may be sent to “GMP 63B Relief Fund,” 2520 Kennedy St., N.E., Minneapolis, MN 55413. Supporters also are asked to write Progress Casting to urge an end to the lockout. Send letters to Bill Bieber (owner) or Tim Meador (general manager), Progress Casting, 2600 Niagara Lane N., Plymouth, MN 55447.
White House Task Force to Focus on America’s Working Families
For the first time in eight years, working families have a place in the White House. Yesterday, President-elect Barack Obama said he will establish a White House Task Force on Working Families. Vice President-elect Joe Biden will head the task force.
The task force will be a major initiative from the Obama administration targeted at raising the living standards of middle-class, working families. Along with Biden, it will include top-level administration policymakers. The task force will conduct outreach sessions with representatives of labor, business and the advocacy communities. Said Obama:
My administration will be absolutely committed to the future of America’s middle-class and working families. They will be front and center every day in our work in the White House. And this Task Force will be one vehicle we will use to ensure that we never forget that commitment. I think it can make a great contribution to our work.
