Working Family Issues

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.aflcio.org/issues/politics/issues.cfm

America has an important decision to make. Our next president will shape the future for working families. Find out where the 2008 presidential candidates stand on the most important issues for working families.

* Employee Free Choice Act

America’s working families are struggling to make ends meet and our middle class is disappearing. The best opportunity working people have to get ahead economically is by joining together in unions to bargain with our employers for better wages and benefits. But the current system for forming unions and bargaining is broken. Employers routinely intimidate, harass, coerce and even fire workers who try to form unions and bargain for economic well-being. The Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800, S. 1041) would level the playing field for workers and employers and restore our freedom to choose a union.

Get the candidates' positions:

John McCain * Barack Obama

* Good Jobs

America’s workforce is under pressure, facing stagnant wages, rapidly rising health care costs, disappearing retirement benefits and an overall lack of job security. It’s taken 10 years for America’s minimum-wage workers to get a raise, and families are still struggling to get by on what they earn. The next president must put a high priority on ensuring that the U.S. economy is creating good jobs at good wages.

Get the candidates' positions:

John McCain * Barack Obama

* Health Care

America has a health care crisis. Forty-seven million Americans have no health insurance, while millions more are feeling the pressure of skyrocketing costs and inadequate coverage. Our health care system needs serious, comprehensive reform that will provide guaranteed affordable health care for all.

Get the candidates' positions:

John McCain * Barack Obama

* Trade & Manufacturing

U.S. trade deals in recent years have cost America's workers millions of jobs and lowered living and working standards for workers globally. The next president must fight for a trade policy that supports, rather than hurts, working families here and abroad.

Get the candidates' positions:

John McCain * Barack Obama

* Retirement Security

After a lifetime of work, retirees deserve a basic level of security. But employer-provided pensions are disappearing and Social Security is under threat. The next president must strengthen Social Security, rather than allow dangerous privatization schemes, and protect workers' pensions and retirement savings.

Get the candidates' positions:

John McCain * Barack Obama

* Education

Every child deserves a world-class public education and access to affordable higher education. America's future—our ability to compete globally and grow economically—depends on what we’re willing to provide to our children.

Get the candidates' positions:

John McCain * Barack Obama


Previous post today {Do Blogs Take Labor Issues Seriously?}: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3606442

This will be my last post for awhile. I've tried very hard to get the general users to understand where labor and I both come from. I've spent so many hours upon hours without much to show for it. One time a moderator asked if there were several people posting under one name because I had so many varied posts. The lack of attention the above post today got drove home the fact about lack of attention of labor. I don't understand why with the time and $ union members are putting into the party, why aren't we thought of in a better light. Even the former State Party Chairman here in Ne. was more against than pro labor. He too liked our cash and time, but that was about all. On occasion I have broken a rule or two. I have no regrets.

I don't know if it is burn out or burned up. I asked a story that was going to run about the Labor Forum in a large labor site to be dropped. No use for people to stop by and see no traffic.

I expect anti union rhetoric or lack of respect in Nebraska. I don't expect so much of it here. There is plenty judging by lack or attention labor posts have. It hurts me more than many know.

To party solidarity,

Omaha Steve

[Joesunionreview]

1. Shame on those that call themselves Democrats...

...if they don't understand that labor is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE in this next election, your complacency in not backing the labor movement is discouraging to say the least, even at sites such as DailyKOS, many so-called Democrats, have no clue as to how the labor movement is the utmost importance in a free and democratic society. The point that people like myself, who use our hands to make a living are known as uneducated, it's appalling. Those damn skyscrapers in the city took some though, and I know working in the field it's used on a daily basis. People who work with their hands are not stupid, but they need your support.

By showing that labor is not your concern, you allow labor to be even weaker, you allow those against labor to grow. You help to make our country weaker, you allow the death of the American Dream, to let the fruits of our labor lead us a path to a better life and ultimately be able to retire with some semblance of security.

Who do you think fought for all of the social welfare? A right to collective bargaining? Do you think it was the intellectuals? I think not. It was people who got their hands dirty, but once upon a time they worked together, now most intellectuals are above that, they went through 8 years of college and act as if they are superior and have their own agendas.

When was the last time you refused to buy something that was made in a sweatshop? Stood with a worker on a picket line? Signed a petition in support of workers who are getting screwed by some company?

We can never change a thing if we are all poor, and unless your a self-sufficient millionaire, one day you may wish you fought for the working stiffs and the labor movement a little more, because one day your kids may need a job, and the rocket scientist field might already be full.

Support labor! Support workers! Change the world for the better! Don't If you let Omaha Steve leave this place, without so much as a comment, shame on all of you!