New Broom Coalition

May 1st marks the international worker's holiday known as May Day,
which commemorates the fight for the eight-hour work day. The day
was chosen in memory of the Haymarket incident in Chicago in 1886 to
honor the struggles of striking workers and the very real threats to
their health, safety and even lives that workers have undertake when
choosing to exercise the right to organize and form unions.

The right to organize and join a union is a fundamental right, which
must be preserved and maintained if we are to keep our nation strong.
Unions built this nation and built the standard of living that all
Americans today enjoy. With the help of trade unions in the United
States, workers were able to gain new rights such as the forty-hour
work week, worker's pensions, compensation for injury obtained on the
job, and living wages.

Without unions we would look more like the developing world, where
workers have few rights, face hazardous job conditions and receive
little compensation for their employment. We would not have the
strength and innovation that our economy has without the contribution
of our workers and we would not have a healthy and inspired workforce
without our unions.

Unfortunately union membership rests at 18% of the current labor
force, making unions seemingly irrelevant to a vast majority of the
workforce. The reasons for this trend, which is historical and long
term, are complex. Union membership has declined from its historical
highs during the middle of the twentieth century. As workers
transitioned out of factory blue collar jobs into the corporate work
force union membership was seen as a product of a bygone era, not
useful in the corporate culture most middle class workers found
themselves in during the post-war era.

In addition to the worker transition from the factory to the
boardroom, union-busting strategies became more sophisticated and
more pressing. Unions have been painted with a broad brush by the
right wing propaganda mill as corrupt, a danger to the business
climate, a threat to corporate profits, and a danger to international
competitiveness. The trend in the free trade era has been a race to
the bottom for wages, labor costs and worker health and safety
conditions.

The free trade agreements of the 1980's and 1990's have ensured that
an entire generation of Americans will once again have to fight for
their rights if they want to have decent working conditions. The
same is true of the working class of the developing world, who have
been impacted by the same development trends which have affected
American workers.

That is why unions matter. They matter because the fundamental
reality of the working class is that corporations will always seek to
maximize profits. The investing class will always seek the highest
profit possible for their investors, and they will always seek to
reduce labor costs, which are usually their biggest expenditure.
Whether it is exporting hi-tech jobs to India or importing sub-
standard goods from sweatshops in China or encouraging low wage
immigrant workers to compete with trade jobs in the construction
industry, the strategy is the same around the globe.

Unions represent working class solidarity. Regardless of whether you
work in a corporate office or a factory or on a farm, there is a
union for you. Unions are good not just for workers but they are also
good for investors. Unions build strength and pride in a workplace
and ensure that workers have a sense of safety and security in their
occupation.

As a candidate for federal office I support the right of workers to
organize in all occupations. I support the increase of the minimum
wage to at least $10.50 an hour plus benefits. I support universal
single payer health care for all Americans. I support the withdrawal
of the United States from Treaties of Obligation such as NAFTA, CAFTA
and the FTAA, which have driven down wages around the world while
boosting corporate profits. I support full funding for government
agencies designed to protect worker's health and safety.

It has been a long time since those workers stood in the streets of
Chicago organizing for basic rights. History has shown us that the
right to organize and form unions lifts the boat of all Americans.
Unions are a win-win strategy for workers and managers. With unions
we have better working conditions, better health and safety
conditions, better wages for our workers and increased profits for
investors. So let's make America strong and support the right to
organize for all Americans