USW Local 2-232
formerly PACE 7-232
Season's Greetings
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Membership Meeting
Members are urged to Attend this Meeting.
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USW Local 2-232 formerly PACE 7-232
Season's Greetings * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Members are urged to Attend this Meeting.
|
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Crunch
Time Crunch time, brothers and sisters. By the time you read this, it will be just days before the November 7 elections. Which means this is the last time I can appeal to you not just to vote, but to get involved:
Sounds trite, I know. But these are extremely serious
elections, with a lot at stake for working families and unions. On the state level, it's not just a matter of whether or not we have union-friendly majorities in the Assembly and Senate who will pass legislation that helps working families. The people we elect to the Legislature are going to re-draw the map of legislative districts next year-and whichever party has the majority gets to draw the map to their advantage. That issue won't be featured on any of the hundreds of 30-second TV political ads you've seen recently, but it's the single most important outcome of the elections: power for one party or the other for at least the next decade! And the Congressional and Presidential elections could determine the future of the American labor movement for many years to come. For the first time in decades, unions are growing again. I think we all feel new energy, new excitement, and new hope in the labor movement. But our revitalization is fragile and our future is not certain. Not only do we see intensified opposition from employers to organizing campaigns, but they have a political agenda that-if they get the chance to get it signed into law-could make it nearly impossible to organize and to have a voice in the legislative and political process. If George Bush becomes President, and if anti-union, anti-working family Republicans retain control of the Senate and House of Representatives, then we're back to the Newt Gingrich "Contract on America" of 1994-but in a far more dangerous form. Remember the "Contract on America"? Put corporations in charge of the own health and safety inspections and make OSHA virtually an advisory and consultative operation. Silence unions in the political process by making it administratively impossible to raise funds to communicate with our members on legislative and political issues. Gut our environmental laws. And the list went on. That's what we could face in 2001. But it will be much worse. Corporate America now realizes that the American labor movement is no longer a paper tiger. They realize that we are starting to get it right! - in organizing, in political action, in the capacity to mobilize our members, in building effective coalitions with our allies, in our potential to derail their "globalization" agenda. In other words, our successes make us a real threat to their quest for unchallenged dominance, not just an annoyance. So if Corporate America gets the political power they lust for in November, they won't just nibble around the edges: they'll go for our heart. They won't just pass anti-union legislation. They'll try to eliminate us as a significant force in American society. They'll do it through laws that make it impossible for us to organize and grow. They'll do it by silencing our voice in politics. They'll do it through anti-union appointments to the National Labor Relations Board and the Supreme Court, consolidating their power for decades to come. They'll do it by taking away every effective tool we have to contest their power and improve the lives of working families. That may sound like "the sky is falling" rhetoric, especially given the "compassionate conservatism" talk of Bush and Cheney. But when you look at their records and those who are bankrolling their campaign and the obvious agenda of Corporate America, I think you'll agree that no matter what the politicians say, it truly is our future that is at stake on November 7. You be the judge. David Newby, President Wisconsin State AFL-CIO |
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