Edwards Receives Support Of Steelworkers And Mine Workers UnionsJOHN EDWARDS 08Sep 3, 2007 7:12 AM
Official endorsement at Pittsburgh Labor Day rally gives Edwards largest bloc of union support among presidential candidates so farPittsburgh, Pennsylvania – The United Steelworkers (USW) and the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) today endorsed Senator John Edwards for president. Following the Thursday endorsement of Edwards by the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners in America, the two endorsements announced today at a Labor Day rally in Pittsburgh with union members and their families give Edwards the largest bloc of union support so far—combined, more than 1.8 million members and retirees—among any of the presidential candidates.
"I am especially honored to receive the support of the Steelworkers and Mine Workers unions," said Edwards, "These are the workers who built the middle class in America, and they are the backbone of the American labor movement. They understand how important it is to fight back when jobs, safety, standards and our values are at risk—and they know what's at stake in this election."
"These workers have felt the negative impact of a broken system in Washington that is rigged against America's working families for far too long—whether it's the tragic lack of oversight in mine safety, trade agreements written to benefit multinational corporations while they ship American jobs overseas, or the millions of working Americans who still can't afford health insurance," added Edwards. "As president, I will proudly lead the fight on behalf of working families with their support—and together we will win."
Representing 1.2 million workers and retirees, the USW is the nation's largest private sector industrial union. Following extensive outreach to USW members that included a poll of the union's 15,000 activists, as well as a nationwide survey of the union's membership, the USW International Executive Board voted unanimously on Sunday, September 2nd to endorse Edwards.
The UMWA represents 105,000 active and retired coal miners, municipal employees, health care workers and manufacturing workers in North America. Their membership includes more coal miners than any union in the world.
Both Steelworkers President Leo W. Gerard and UMWA President Cecil E. Roberts announced their endorsement by making clear the stakes hard-working families face and laying out why Sen. Edwards is the best candidate to lead the fight for change in America.
"Senator John Edwards is committed, as he has been throughout his life, to going to bat for everyday Americans and to changing a broken political system that leaves millions of Americans without a voice in their government," said Steelworkers President Leo W. Gerard. "Edwards is right on the issues that matter to us, and he's the candidate with the best chance of winning in the general election. The big corporations don't need another president who does their bidding. It's time we had a president who will fight for working people—and that's what John Edwards will do."
"Senator Edwards' positions on the issues of importance to UMWA members make him the best fit of all the candidates for president," UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts said. "We need a president who cares about ordinary working people instead of the richest Americans and the big multinational corporations. We believe John Edwards is that person, and we will work as hard as we know how on his behalf anywhere and everywhere we can."
Close to 1,000 people were expected at the Pittsburgh Labor Day rally where the unions' official endorsements were announced. Sen. Edwards was joined on stage by USW President Leo Gerard, UMWA International President Cecil Roberts and local union members. Elizabeth Edwards and Edwards Campaign Manager David Bonior also attended the event.
On Thursday, August 30th, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, representing more than 520,000 members from all political affiliations, also announced that they would endorse John Edwards for president. Their formal endorsement will take place at a rally of union members on September 8th in New Hampshire.
http://johnedwards.com/news/press-releases/20070903-union-support/ John Edwards: Union manJohn Edwards believes a new labor movement is the answer to the country's great divide. Should corporate America be afraid of him?by Nina Easton, Fortune Washington bureau chief
May 7 2007: 5:53 AM EDT
(Fortune Magazine) -- No one was paying much attention to John Edwards in February 2006, when a historic contest for control of Congress was getting underway and the 2008 presidential race was still a sliver of light on the horizon. But Danny Glover was. He had to. For three days the Lethal Weapon star and the one-term Senator were glued to each other's sides like a pair of mismatched LAPD cops as they traveled across the country to lend support to hotel workers and their unions on the eve of a threatened strike.
At the time, Glover was the veteran of poverty politics; Edwards was still a rookie in training. So Glover, who prides himself on his ability to sniff out poseurs and users, warily scrutinized the carefully coifed politician from North Carolina. "There's real humility and false humility," Glover says. Which was Edwards?
In Boston, he watched Edwards listen to the plight of a single mother, an Italian immigrant who had managed on a hotel maid's pay to raise four children and send each one to college. In Chicago, Edwards took a lesson in the back-breaking work of lifting 113-pound mattresses and changing luxury duvets weighed down by piles of pillows and shams.
In L.A., the former Senator arrived overscheduled and tired, but impressed labor leaders when he readily agreed to squeeze in an extra meeting with a group of kitchen workers on their break.
The rich lawyer with the soft Southern accent bonded comfortably with this unseen servant class. Like a juror on one of Edwards's personal-injury cases, Glover found himself falling under the trial lawyer's spell. As the duo walked into a meeting of 60 African-American community leaders in downtown L.A. to make the case for greater black support of unions, the deal was sealed. "He was able to talk with them, not up to them or down to them," Glover recalls. "Here was a man who sincerely had empathy."
(snip)
"The difference between union and non-union is literally the difference between poverty and middle class," Edwards told Fortune. "Hotel workers, restaurant workers, home health workers, hospital workers - at last count there are some 50 million people who work in the service economy. Those jobs aren't going anywhere else. They have to be done in the United States."
Courting the labor vote is standard procedure for Democratic presidential candidates, but Edwards goes well beyond the usual union-friendly rhetoric; he has aggressively lobbied on behalf of legal changes to make it easier for labor to organize. The testimonials have already begun: "I'm 61, and in my lifetime I don't recall any candidate for President who articulated a belief not just that unions are good, but that they are necessary for what ails society," says John Wilhelm, president of the apparel, textile and hospitality workers' union Unite Here.
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http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/14/100008849 Transformational Change For America And The World - JOHN EDWARDS for PRESIDENT 2008 :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:
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A true revolution of values "I'm proposing we set a national goal of eliminating poverty in the next 30 years." - JOHN EDWARDS 08 "If you call wanting to give everybody a chance 'class warfare,' then so be it. That's what I'm for." - JOHN EDWARDS 08 "Every time another radical Republican running for president speaks, the American people are reminded of how out of touch with economic reality they are." - JOHN EDWARDS 08 Building One America Starts in New Orleans - JOHN EDWARDS 08 Silence is Betrayal - JOHN EDWARDS 08 Moral Leadership - JOHN EDWARDS 08 Ending Poverty in America - edited by
Senator John Edwards 
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