Working America Turns Out for Change

Working America Turns Out for Change; Food and Commercial Workers Union Calls for Action to Rebuild Working America

11/3/2004 9:50:00 AM

To: National Desk

Contact: Greg Denier of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, 202-256-7851 (cell)

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Working America turned out in unprecedented numbers to support an agenda of change. Working families are demanding a different direction for the next four years, regardless of the final vote count. From better jobs to affordable family health care, a program for the economic rebuilding of working America -- a working America that has suffered massive job loss, declining wages and the rapid erosion of affordable health insurance -- now has the informed, mobilized and determined grassroots base to force its way onto the political agenda for the next four years.

"We turned out on election day, and we will not be turned around. We activated an army of working families for this election, and we are now mobilized to fight for a program to rebuild working America," said Joe Hansen, president of the 1.4 million member United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.

Hansen congratulated the hundreds of UFCW local unions for their tireless and relentless work to register and turnout hundreds of thousands of union members, many of whom were first time voters. The UFCW is one of the largest unions overall, and one of the largest unions of working women, in most of the battleground states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan. The UFCW, the largest union of workers under age 25, also collaborated with Rock the Vote and other youth-oriented programs to help generate a record turnout of young voters.

The efforts of the UFCW and the labor movement produced results. According to early reports, union members made up a record-shattering percentage of the electorate and provided a solid foundation of voters for change. The turnout numbers indicate a growing demand among working families for government action to restore the economic standing of the working middle class.

Despite a growing economy and increased productivity, workers have seen the steady outsourcing of good jobs, the steady decline of real wages, and a steady increase in health care costs and the number of uninsured working families. The Bush Administration launched an unrelenting assault on workers from its first days in office with the repeal of the ergonomic standard in early 2001 to proposing to take away overtime pay for millions of workers in 2004. More and more workers slid into poverty over the past four years threatening the future of a working middle class America.

Hansen declared, "Implementing a program to rebuild working America is fight for the heart and soul of our country -- will we continue to be a nation were hard work brings dignity, respect and a decent standard of living; or, will we be a nation where the wealth concentrates at the top while the many who do the work fall farther and farther behind?"

The first agenda item in a program to rebuild working America, according to the UFCW leader, is health care reform. "There is no greater threat to family economic and personal security than the loss of health insurance. Without decent health insurance, most working families are only illness away from an economic crisis that could shatter the family and dim its hopes for the future. Affordable, accessible, comprehensive health care for all working families is the foundation of restoring the working middle class."

A rebuild working America program would, according to Hansen, also focus government investment to generate job growth, raise the minimum wage and restore workplace rights.

"We don't want big government, we want effective government that acts to raise living standards and provide economic opportunity for working Americans," Hansen said.

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For more information, contact Greg Denier, 202-256-7851 (cell)

http://www.usnewswire.com/