From the fall 2008 issue of the IBEW Journal

‘Vote McCain and Get the Same’
Three Years After Katrina, New Orleans Leader Recalls Rough Treatment at Low Moment

In May, as the Democratic presidential primary between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama still burned hot, representatives of the IBEW Political/Legislative Department met with some of the Fifth District’s political activists to discuss the upcoming election. 

During open discussion, a member stood up and said that he hoped Barack Obama wouldn’t win the Democratic nomination because IBEW activists could never “sell” the candidate in Louisiana.

For New Orleans Local 130 Business Manager Tiger Hammond, the comment evoked similar statements voiced by a few members before a union meeting held a few weeks earlier.  They said that they could never vote for an African American or a woman for president. So Hammond took the floor. “Let me tell you something,” Hammond said, passing along the comments he made to his members.

“In 2000, when George W. Bush took office, gas was $.99 a gallon. Today, it’s $4, a 300-percent increase. In 2000, Local 130’s employer contribution for medical insurance was the cheapest in the country. They contributed $1.60 an hour and we had seen no increases in 12 years. Today, our insurance costs $3.60 an hour and it is going up to $4.20. That’s a 260-percent increase! Money that you could have had in your pockets is now going to the drug companies and the insurance companies.

“And let us never, ever forget what happened after Hurricane Katrina. Eighty-five of our members from Lake Charles, Baton Rouge and Bogalusa, La. were working 84 hours a week on a Davis-Bacon project at the Air Force base; many still had 11 feet of water in their homes. They were trying to keep their minds off of what was going on back home, living in shelters and tents and eating three square meals provided by the Air Force.

“Three days later, they were escorted off the job, replaced by nonunion workers. Why? Because George W. Bush suspended Davis-Bacon. He kicked our members in the teeth when we were already down. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever faced in my whole life. Vote for John McCain and you’ll get the same kind of kick in the teeth as we got from George W. Bush.

“When I get in that voting booth, I’m not voting for a white woman and I’m not voting for a black man. I’m voting for a Democrat.

“So, before you vote in November, think about the cost of gasoline. Think about the cost of health insurance and the money you could be putting in your pocket. And think about how George W. Bush kicked us in the teeth and how John McCain wants to eliminate Davis-Bacon and tax your health insurance, too. And vote for Barack Obama.”