(continued) Quickies: Daily Reason to Volunteer and Vote for Union Endorsed Candidates

October 22, 2008:  Because corporate executives are the newest public employees?!

 

As if making ends meet wasn’t hard enough.  In an article today economist Dean Baker pointed out that people making $40,000 a year are being taxed to benefit bankers that make “more than 100 times as much.”  He wrote that, just last week, big banks got $150 billion in checks from US taxpayers. 

 

Locally, in the City of Chula Vista, the Mayor and her allies wanted to fund the infrastructure for Gaylord Entertainment’s proposed bayfront project with no strings attached—no jobs for local workers, no environmental protections—just a direct transfer from our pockets to developers’ coffers.

 

This morning, Pamela Bensoussan and Steve Castaneda, our endorsed candidates for Chula Vista City Council got a chance to talk to some building trades union members before you started your day building the Otay Mesa Power Plant. 

 

If you haven’t already voted absentee, in 13 days we can elect Pamela and Steve and other politcians who won’t give away our hard earned money to corporations and developers.  They understand we expect community benefits, not corporate bailouts.

 

Pamela and Steve know that the Project Labor Agreement (PLA) at the Otay Mesa Power Plant is good for local workers and the local economy.  That is why they both support local hire agreements and the right to organize.  That is why they got up this morning to come and see how the training and skills of  union members translates into reliable electricity for the City they seek to represent.  That is also why corporations are spending lots of money to try and defeat them and why you need to volunteer to make sure we get out the vote.

Daily Reason to Volunteer and Vote for Union Endorsed Candidates

Tuesday, October 21- Because we are ready for the next two weeks:

 

The first time I heard of Barack Obama was when I heard him speak at the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston.  He brought down the house with his powerful speech and I felt the same political energy in that room that night, that I feel all around me now, with just 14 days more to go before the election.

   

I wasn’t always an Obama supporter.  Leading up to the primary election, I could not help but pull for John Edwards.  John Edwards made the 2008 elections about working families.  He made the issues I care about mainstream.  He talked about poverty and the right to organize and, necessarily, the other Democratic candidates, followed suit.  

 

Barack Obama has run his campaign on the platform of issues that Edwards brought to the campaign. Edwards didn’t have the financial backing or media attention (though he did have a little scandal brewing) he needed and his campaign failed, but his populist agenda has been carried forward. 

Edwards had a plan of healthcare for all Americans, and he had a plan of addressing climate change while creating good union jobs.  And, the more he talked about it, the more voters liked him as a candidate.  As a former organizer, Obama understands that we grow together from the bottom-up.  And he understands, working families, not corporate fat cats,  must be the backbone of “one America”. 

 

That is why for the next fourteen days we must continue to do everything we can to make sure we elect Barack Obama and all the candidates we have endorsed all the way down the ballot.  We can leave nothing to chance.  From the Presidential race to our City Council and school board elections, we have never had so much at stake.  We have worked hard to educate and inform one another and our neighbors about the importance of creating sustainable jobs in renewable energy, about providing careers with training, healthcare and pensions, about addressing the gap between the rich and the rest of us. Now we must make sure that translates into votes (votes that are counted).

 

So, please, if you have volunteered, volunteer for one more shift.  If you haven’t yet volunteered, make some time in the next two weeks to come out and make some phone calls or knock on some doors.   Come on election day and the first three days in November to help us make sure working families know where they go to vote and help us make sure they get to the polls.  Whether you can volunteer for three hours or thirty, do something in the next 14 days. 

See you at the union hall!

(continued) Daily Reason to Volunteer and Vote for Union Endorsed Candidates

Tuesday October 14^- Because unorganized workers want a collective voice at work:

 

The Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) is scared to death that all your work this election season is going to allow their workers to form unions and have a voice at work.  Surveys consistently show that US workers overwhelmingly would choose collective representation in their workplaces if they could do so. 

 

What if electricians at Berg or Helix only had to sign a card to say they wanted a union?  What if they didn’t have to put up with threats of losing their jobs and a barrage of lies about how it is better to work without proper PPE, with inadequate training, and without health and welfare benefits for their families? 

 

That is exactly what will happen if we elect Barack Obama who has committed to signing the Employee Free Choice Act into law. On the ABC San Diego website they acknowledge the political work of union members is kicking their butts.  The webpage says, “It remains an uphill battle with organized labor controlling so much of the politics impacting our industry . . . For years we have been on the defensive.”

 

In fact the ABC is so scared of the apprentices, journeymen, and technicians (and your family members!) who volunteer your time to get our endorsed candidates elected that the ABC started the Free Enterprise Alliance (FEA). FEA spends money that the ABC should be spending on training and development to make sure unorganized electricians and other craftspeople won’t sign a union card after the Employee Free Choice Act passes when we elect Barack Obama. 

 

FEA has made a whole series of posters for non-union employers to post on their jobsites and flyers that non-union bosses can download from the internet and put in their workers paycheck envelopes.   The irony is that they are encouraging workers to support politicians who will help make sure they earn less money, are less secure, and have less safe working conditions.  Of course, not only is the ABC encouraging workers to vote for candidates who have vowed to squash unions, but they are inoculating their workers—trying to make sure that the electricians working out there without a voice on the job, are scared to death to sign a union representation card.

 

You can check out some of the videos and commercials the ABC and their corporate friends are spending millions of dollars on here.  We will never match these folks dollar for dollar in politics, but they will never have thousands of working men and women out talking to other working families like unions have done this election season. 

We don’t have as many members signed up for phonebanking this Thursday as we have in previous weeks.  We cannot afford to back down now.  After all, we have a reputation to uphold with the ABC!  Please call or email and sign-up to volunteer now.

(continued) Quickies: Daily Reason to Volunteer and Vote for Union Endorsed Candidates

October 10, 2008- Because union endorsed candidates understand and care about our issues:

 

Candidate for San Diego City Council Sherri Lightner asked for a meeting to learn more about the IBEW and today she came over to the IBEW/ NECA training center to visit with Training Director Patrick Knighton and IBEW Business Manager Allen Shur.  She had been to our training center before, when we hosted a Labor 101 class (the class was an opportunity for people interested in running for office to learn more about labor unions and the issues facing working families) and she came again today to learn more about IBEW’s training and talk to us about her campaign. 

 

San Diego District 1 is a large district with lots of technology and research capacity (San Diego City Council District 1 includes La Jolla, University City, Rancho Penasquitos, Carmel Valley, Del Mar Mesa, Torrey Hills, Torrey Pines, and Torrey Highlands), and there is also great potential for growth in renewable energy and IBEW jobs in the district.  Sherri Lightner has a special synergy with IBEW members.  She is an engineer by trade and understands that being on the cutting edge of energy science means having the best trained and qualified apprentices and electrical workers on the job.  In addition to knowing what it takes to engineer a PV system, she understands that a green economy and a healthier environment requires sustainable careers for City residents.  

 

If union endorsed candidates like Sherri Lightner win their elections, union workers will win as well. 

(continued) Quickies: Daily Reason to Volunteer and Vote for Union Endorsed Candidates

Thursday October 9. 2008 Because we want to retire, not return to the Wild West:

 Yesterday the House Committee on Labor and Employment held a hearing to investigate the impact of the financial crisis on retirement security.     In his opening statement and press release Congressman George Miller said “…As Congress continues our investigations into this crisis…The American people are paying the price of this go-go Wild West approach to governing.  One cost will be the concern that our nation’s workers will not have sufficient savings to ensure a secure retirement after a lifetime of hard work.”Some of the men and women I work for have been out of work for a while.  They are losing their healthcare and unemployment benefits and using what is left in their 401ks to make mortgage and vehicle payments.  Working families don’t have much wealth left to strip and on November 4^th, we need to elect politicians who understand the challenges facing working people and who will protect families and not Wall Street fat cats.

(continued) Quickies: Daily Reason to Volunteer and Vote for Union Endorsed Candidates

Wednesday October 1- Just because all you had to do was turn 18, doesn’t mean you can take your vote for granted:

When, before her death in 1977,  Fannie Lou Hamer was asked in an interview “Do you have faith that the system will ever work properly?” She replied, “We have to make it work. Ain’t nothing going to be handed to you on a silver platter, nothing. …. You’ve got to fight. Every step of the way, you’ve got to fight.” Her words ring true and her message is re-enforced in recent history, in places like Ohio in 2000, in Florida in 2004, and in Michigan today.    The Declaration of Independence gave only white, male property-owners the right to vote.  The right to vote was expanded only through struggle and has been continually tested by the likes of poll taxes, literacy tests and violence.  Hamer didn’t see the vote as end but as a part of the struggle for justice for working people.  Employment and political representation are entwined and are rights for which we fight.  We must be engaged in the electoral process in order to protect and expand those rights. 

Tuesday September 30- Because we have “The Worst Presnadent Ever.”

 and can’t afford more of the same.  If you like the video, you can check out more of Charlie Imes music and/ or purchase a CD at www.crimesofmusic.com.

(continued) Quickies: Daily Reason to Volunteer and Vote for Union Endorsed Candidates

OK.  I know it hasn’t been daily, but I am emailing them and then forgetting to post…here are today’s and tomorrow’s reason:

 

Sunday September 28- Because Time is Running Out:

Election Day is right around the corner! There are only 37 days left before voters beging going to the polls. In just 8 days voters can begin voting by mail or in person at the registrar of voters.

 

Monday September 29- Because when Cheney calls, McCain forgets to investigate KBR and, what the heck, KBR has jobs for out of work electricians in Georgia!

No, not in Atlanta or Savannah but in Eastern Europe. Former Halliburton subsidiary KBR is calling the union hall. Sure, they might not be a union shop and, sure, the company has performed shoddy and deadly work in Iraq, as is pointed out in this article in the Army Times today, but KBR says they know times are tough for SoCal electricians and they have so many opportunities they can’t let them pass us by.

Huh?! What about the energy and water infrastructure that needs to be built right here, in San Diego, where you can put in your time and go home and be with your family afterwards? KBR executives don’t worry about electrical fires, you missing your family, or locating to a war zone.  Billions in war contracts have been awarded to Bush insiders.  So, even though, KBR’s horrible working conditions and deadly electrocutions and fires have been exposed, KBR wants your electrical expertise.  Check out the blog of Debbie Crawford, an IBEW Local 48 electrician who worked for a KBR contractor in Iraq and who testified before Congress about that experience. Summing up her testimony, she said, “It saddens and angers me that at least 11 American soldiers and two civilian contractors have died due to electrocution, not in combat, but at camps and bases where they should have felt the safest. As licensed electricians, we are bound to protect human life, first and foremost. We did not do that, and I feel we have failed them .”

And, you have got to check-out this clip from the film “Why We Fight”.  John McCain is being asked about Dick Cheney’s involvement in the KBR division of Halliburton and how it obtained no bid contracts and overcharged taxpayers. When McCain is interupted by a call from Cheney, he, visibly shaken, halts the interview. It seems pretty evident that McCain is beholden only to the same characters that run (into the ground) our government now and that put the lives of workers in danger across the globe.

 

(continued) Quickies: Daily Reason to Volunteer and Vote for Union Endorsed Candidates

Today’s reason, “our families,” was submitted by two IBEW 569 members

Monday September 22- For Our Famlies:

 

“I volunteer because my family is my priority.  IBEW 569 endorsed candidates understand our struggle and will fight with us to strengthen our families.”

 Jaime Leon, Journey-level electrician, Executive Board Member, Legislative Committee Member

“My son asked me why I am volunteering.  I told him I was volunteering for him.  He deserves the same chances I had.  My family’s future depends on us being able to elect our IBEW 569 endorsed candidates.”

Billie Johnson, Journey-level electrician, Legislative Committee Member

 

Tuesday  September 23, 2008- Because, worker / veterans need support, not lip-service

According to the AFLCIO, there are 2.1 million union members that are veterans of military service.  Union endorsed candidates understand that veterans shouldn’t be abandoned by the government.  Inadequate funding has meant that vets in the VA system don’t get the care they need.  San Diego is a Navy town and our members who are veterans of previous wars and who are returning from Iraq need support now.  This is something  union-endorsed Congressman Bob Filner (who has a 100% voting record for working families) understands and fights for everyday.  But  worker-veterans and Bob Filner need more support in Congress from people like endorsed candidates Mike Lumpkin and Nick Leibham.  Program like Helmets-to-Hardhats need to be expanded and new infrastructure needs to be built so we can put returning veterans to work.  Veterans need access to programs to help address stress disorder and traumatic injuries.  Our endorsed candidates need to succeed for our 569 veterans to get the care they deserve.

 

(Continued) Quickies: Daily Reason to Volunteer and Vote for Union Endorsed Candidates

Opps.  I forgot to post a couple “Quickies” here.  I will post them tomorrow.

Saturday September 20, 2008- Because votes are valuable:

If you’re vote didn’t matter, the McCain campaign wouldn’t be working so hard to suppress the vote of hardworking Americans, such as those in the swing state of Michigan where McCain campaign operatives are setting up a campaign to challenge the votes of anyone who has defaulted on their house payments- potentially disenfranchising Obama voters and creating chaos and long lines in pro-Obama precincts.

For a lot more information on efforts to steal votes check out Greg Palast’s website.

 

Sunday September 21, 2008- Because union endorsed candidates know us and want our support:

For example, Manuel Perez, our IBEW 569 endorsed candidate for the 80th Assembly District in Imperial Valley, has led the way to build new schools and modernize classrooms and establish school-based health clinics in those schools.  His opponent, Gary Jeandron, did not even bother to fill out our endorsement questionairre.

Quickies (continued): Daily Reason to Volunteer and Vote for Union Endorsed Candidates

Saturday September 13, Because union-endorsed candidates become elected officials that walk the walk:

In the City of Chula Vista, we have been involved in an organizing campaign on the Chula Vista Bayfront for years. Yet, instead of taking leadership, anti-worker Mayor Cheryl Cox has thwarted our efforts at every turn. In Los Angeles, on the other hand, a pro-union mayor and council and their appointees at the Redevelopment Agency created an innovative local hire policy, much like what we and our community partners have asked for on the bayfront. Instead of a drawn-out fight, many Los Angeles redevelopment projects are now covered by a policy that requires projects to hire more more local residents while standardizing a project labor agreement (PLA) to ensure that the jobs are middle class, union-jobs.

Now, Mayor Cox, is backing two city council candidates who will help her carry out her union-busting agenda. We can’t let Mayor Cox gain an ABC-backed majority on the City Council!

 

Sunday September 14, Because our apprenticeship program is political:

Apprenticeship programs are governed by state and federal laws and regulations. Relaxed rules and standards mean that programs like WECA and the ABC can find more loopholes (like having “public” and “private” apprentices) and undergo less scruitiny in regards to curriculum and administration. Local governments, like the city of San Diego, have understaffed apprenticeship compliance programs and do not have agreements or laws that encourage or require the use of apprentices on jobs funded with taxpayers dollars. Union-endorsed candidates understand that unions are more successfull at recruiting, training, and graduating people from low-income communities, people of color and women than non-union contractors and support our efforts to make sure local workers have access to careers in the electrical industry.

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 12- Volunteering is fun. And there is nothing wrong with fun.  

 

I talk to people a lot about their work. And often, people describe a job in which they get to use their creativity and skills to complete a complex or challenging project as being the most fun. Usually that fun involves working alongside people whose company is enjoyable and who make working enjoyable. Usually, people come away from these demanding and fun jobs with great stories about accomplishing great things and getting in some good laughs!

With our busy lives, it is not always easy to find a couple more hours in a hectic week to come the the union hall or campaign office to help get out the vote for union endorsed candidate, but, once you do it, you will be glad you did.

As unionists, we are used to standing shoulder-to-shoulder to get good contracts, to win organizing campaigns, to help one another when family life is hard, and to help one another be the best craftspeople in our field. That same spirit carries into our volunteer activities. Whether our endorsed candidates win or lose often depends on union voters and how well we turn-out that vote. It is important and necessary for us to do grassroots work to elect people who support our unions and our goals.

But the phonecalling, the precinct walking, the letter writing…can all be fun. Sure, volunteering fun is serious business, but that is the best kind. Volunteering is a way to come out and spend time making a difference and having fun with co-workers.  It is also a chance to get to know other union and community members that you haven’t spent much time with in the past. It is a way to feel invigorated and empowered to make a difference in the most important election of our lives.