I am a proud union construction member. Recently, the mother organization of all the construction unions, The Building And Constructions Trades Council of the AFL-CIO, has released a couple of videos that help me explain to fellow workers, why they should vote for Barack Obama.
Many times when I am on a jobsite, as I am kinda, sorta known as an informed union member, I get asked questions about politics, as in the "who are you voting for?'
I really hate that question, as ,my initial idea when getting active in labor was to avoid the political end of it, but unfortunately, labor movement is politics.
So I usually wind up avoiding all the BS that my constituents ingest in the Main Stream Media and return their questions with a question of my own.
that question is "What is the most important thing in life?"
What is the most important thing in life?
Usually I get some weird looks, and some pausing, but, it seems that even though my friends are very knowledgeable of the wedge issues, like off-shore drilling, you know the thing that will make us less dependent on foreign oil, or as I say, off shore drilling will benefit us as much as using our food supply for fuel, not much at all. It may benefit the huge corporations on the US taxpayers tit, as the ethanol craze has for Big agriculture. But, benefit the American people, I don't think so.
Abortion, um, don't have one, gay marriage, don't get married to someone of the same sex. I mean this is simple stuff, how about guns? Want one in the country, sure, that doesn't mean you should be able to get an AK-47 in New York City. Book banning from public libraries, um, no, why not just start burning witches again? Heck I would pay to see that, I mean it's got to at least be as cool as UFC. Hell, I'm on a roll, vote for me in '12, but let's get back to the issue at hand.
I started Joe's Union Review to help ALL worker's in the United States, so when I say I need to be fluent in politics, that's an understatement. The more I have learned the more I see that there are officials on both sides who screw us every day, but, the Republicans have the honor of being the tops, I mean really, they are pushing Right To Work (for less) laws in Colorado, and they have already voted against the Employee Free Choice Act the first time around. It's as if they aren't even trying to hide how in the pocket of the big corporations they are. I mean at least the Democrats use a little stealth
I can blurt out about John McCain voting against raising the minimum wage, or how he wants us to not be able to get group health insurance, even pay for it with our own money, our own TAXED money. How he stated he would be in favor with every Free Trade deal that came his way, how he told a bunch of construction workers while he was going around the country calling for unilateral Amnesty for illegal aliens, that the American worker couldn't pick lettuce in Yuma for $50 an hour. But, I won't bother, lets just get back to the question, of the most important thing.
To eat, to put bread on the table for my family
That's the answer I get, hasn't been one different so far
So I, then ask
How do you do that?
:Drumroll, please: the answer:
I work
To which I respond:
Barack Obama has vowed to be a voice for labor, McCain has proven that he is about as anti-labor as Bush, Obama has vowed to pass the Trade Act, that would fine tooth comb ALL of our countries "free trade" agreements, which is also backed by The Teamsters, The Steelworkers, and the entire AFL-CIO, Obama has vowed to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which gives the workers the benefit of getting in a union with a majority of them signing cards. John McCain doesn't care if you have food on your table, but it seems like the only person that actually will help you attain what is most important to you is Barack Obama, because if your not independently wealthy, you may not survive the next four years of the same policies.
Then I usually continue, with a I don't believe in any way shape or form that the entire world will change if Barack Obama is elected, but if he does only 1% in favor of the American worker, thats a lot more than McCain will ever do.
Yesterday I got a response from a Carpenter: "If I voted on labor alone, of course it would be Obama"
Without pause I stated: "What else is there?"
Yesterday The Building and Construction Trades Council released 2 video's about Barack Obama, I really like the first one, it highlights the things that Bush has done against the construction unions and all construction workers since his office began 7 years ago. The first thing he did was sign an Executive Order, that stopped union construction firms from granting a project labor agreement for any Federally funded construction project. Heres the videos:
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