 Featuring:
- A Message from your Business Manager /
Un Mensaje de su Gerente de Negocios
- Presidential Election
- Apprenticeship Graduates
- And more...
Download PDF of the 2008 Fall Newsletter
Dear Brothers, Sisters, & Retirees of Laborer’s Local # 652:
As always, I hope this letter finds you and your family doing well and in good
health. As I write this letter, we find the future of our country about to head
in a new and exciting direction with the recent election of Barrack Obama as
our next President. This history making election brings about hope and promise
of a better future, not only for us, but for our children,and generations to
come.
As many of you who participated in the various phone banks, precinct walks,
and getting out the vote process during this election know, it was a process
that was a lot of hard work. With that in mind, we here at the local, along
with our affiliates at the Southern California District Council of Laborer’s
and the California Labor Federation will be continuing the effort to reach out
to over two million working class voters in swing areas of the State who share
our values. This will be an effort to strengthen our power in future elections,
thus bringing political power to union members in future elections.
I would like to express my most sincere thanks and gratitude to every one of
the volunteers
who assisted us in this election. And I would also like to thank everyone who
exercised their right to vote.
Without you and your efforts, this outcome would not have been possible,
Thank you very much.
President Obama, Labor, and the Future
Now that we have helped place Barrack Obama in the White House, what will be
the affect on
Labor and its future? As I’m sure many of you already know, President-Elect
Obama is a man who supports Labor, what we stand for, and specifically, the
middle class. He supports Davis- Bacon prevailing wages, rebuilding of our roads,
bridges, streets, & highways, renewable energy projects, health care reform,
and the rights of workers to join unions.
President-Elect Obama has campaigned on the promise to create a National Infrastructure
Reinvestment Bank to expand and enhance federal transportation investments.
These projects will create up to two million new direct and indirect jobs per
year and stimulate approximately $35 billion per year in new economic activity.
President-Elect Obama has promised a tax cut for the middle class, rather than
the wealthy. He will
work to grow our economy from the bottom up, instead of leaving working families
to deal with the financial
mess that George Bush and the Republicans got us into.
What does all of this mean to our members and their families? The bottom line
in all of this is good jobs for our members, with a fair wage that will provide
them with the ability to support their family in a way all working
people deserve.
While we would all like to see these things happen in the blink of an eye.
The reality is it will take some time to
work our way out of the mess Bush and the Republicans have left us in. I urge
you to be patient and allow President-Elect Obama the time it will take to correct
the mistakes of the previous administration.
As we wait patiently, let us not forget what can happen when we allow those
who are not interested in the working class to take over. I sincerely hope we
have learned from the failures of the last eight years and
continue our fight each and every day to strengthen our position by registering
to vote, educating ourselves on the issues that affect us as union members,
and reach out to our friends and families for their support on future issues
and elections.
Apprentices & New Members
When I became a member of this local in 1971 I never really thought about where
my career would take me. As time went on, I was fortunate enough to become involved
with the union at the local level, initially starting out as an Audi tor, then
Business Agent, and finally, Business Manager. With that said, I encourage each
of you as the future of this movement to sit down and take some time to map
out a plan for where you would like to be in five, ten, twenty, even thirty |
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