Missouri Members Look to Rout Anti-Worker Candidate
When Kansas City, Mo., Local 124 Business Manager Terry Akins requested his member of congress, Rep. Roy Blunt, to support unemployment benefits for laid-off workers, Akins was taken aback by Blunt’s brusque response:
This guy has zero compassion for workers suffering hard times.
Activists like Akins are highlighting Blunt’s anti-worker stance in advance of the November Senate elections, in which Blunt is running against popular state politician and union-endorsed Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan for the state’s open Senate seat. Blunt is a 14-year congressman and was a member of the House GOP leadership during the Bush years. He garnered a near-perfect Chamber of Commerce voting record.
Local 124 Business Representative Fred Wilson, left, former Sen. Jean Carnahan, Robin
Carnahan and Local 124 Business Manager Terry Akins pose at a conference in Kansas City.
Since 2004, Carnahan has solidified her bonds with the working class and organized labor, Akins said:
With her recent appointments to the Missouri Department of Labor, it is once again the Department of Labor and not the ‘Department of Management.’ Carnahan works closely with those appointees to ensure compliance with state prevailing wage laws.
 Many of Local 124’s rank-and-file members have taken note. Journeyman wireman James Wilkinson is – like many in the trades – without a job. He is volunteering his time as a state registrar to mobilize members to vote for Carnahan.
The jobs picture is slow, and for this election, we need to vote in leaders like Carnahan who have workers’ interests at heart. It’s important to communicate how drastic the difference is between these two candidates. With Blunt, If you’re not rich already, he doesn’t care about you.
Missouri political coordinator and St. Louis Local 1 retiree Roy Gunter is working to get out the vote for Carnahan. Through phone banking, door knocking and job site leafleting, Gunter and other volunteers are shining a light on Blunt’s demonstrated hostility to the working families of Missouri:
Blunt is an avowed right-to-work guy. He’s taken more money from lobbyists than anyone in the House of Representatives, including a fortune from the Chamber of Commerce. Blunt is a strong supporter of shipping jobs outside our borders. If ever there was a time for working men and men of our state to be fed-up with the status quo, it’s now.
 Missouri political coordinator and St. Louis Local 1 retiree Roy Gunter is working to get out the vote for Carnahan.
While hailing from a political family, Robin Carnahan – the daughter of former Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan – is a relatively fresh face on the national political scene whose record of advocacy for workers and solid leadership have endeared her to working men and women across party lines, Akins said.
She has done her homework and has realized the power of unions – she’s standing up with us. We have a strong link with Robin, and through our dialogue, it’s getting stronger.
On her campaign Web site, Carnahan lays out her support for middle-class issues. She champions Wall Street reform, takes on corporations who send jobs overseas, and supports provisions mandating that federal contracts go to American companies for American-made products.
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