Labor & Employment Law

Labor 2010: Taking It to the Streets in Pennsylvania

By admin

When asked by a local TV reporter about the most important issue in the Pennsylvania governor?s race this year, Dan Onorato, the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO-endorsed Democratic candidate for governor, replied, ?There are three issues: jobs, jobs, jobs.?

Onorato then entered the Erie, Pa., Electrical Workers (IBEW) hall, where a dozen Labor 2010 volunteers were waiting and pointed to a freshly minted poster displaying the state labor federation’s core message to members: ?Vote your job!? He smiled widely when he read the second line on the rally sign, ?Onorato for Governor.? Said Onorato:

It is crystal clear that we are on the same page. The work you are doing here and in cities all over Pennsylvania is about jobs and electing leaders who will make jobs job-one in Harrisburg and Washington.

The labor walk in Erie on Saturday was only one of many taking place this week across  Pennsylvania. Says Liz McElroy, the Labor 2010 state director:

Labor Day set the stage for us to ramp up the program in a big way. Our state?s union leaders are fully engaged and releasing members, over 70 of them so far, who have hit the ground running and recruiting brothers and sisters to do the work it takes to win.

To date AFT, ATU, CWA, IUOE, NALC, NATCA, UFCW, USW and UWUA have released staff for Labor 2010 in Pennsylvania, with more on the way from AFGE, AFSCME, BCTGM, SEIU and SMWIA.

Daryl Bush, a volunteer from UFCW Local 1, was one of the walkers who turned out Saturday.

A little shoe leather is a small price to pay when jobs are on the line. I am proud to be out here today walking for Onorato and pushing our members to vote for him.

Bush was among more than 100 volunteers who hit the streets Saturday in Pennsylvania. According to Frank Snyder, secretary-treasurer and political director of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO:

Based on previous campaigns, the labor movement in Pennsylvania anticipates more than 6,000 local union volunteers from all across Pennsylvania will be working in education and mobilization activities through Election Day.

Onorato concluded his remarks in Erie on Saturday by saying:

The reason we are going to have a successful campaign is because of labor?s four pillars program, touching union members so many times before Election Day.

Now all we have to do is prove how right Onorato is.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on September 13, 2010 (boomark / email).