Nevada IBEW Mobilizes for Good Jobs, Retirement Security

For Vacaville, Calif., Local 1245 member Mike Grimm, the right choice in this year’s Senate election in Nevada couldn’t be any more obvious.

Vacaville, Calif., Local 1245 member Mike Grimm is helping to mobilize IBEW
members throughout Nevada in support of Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Dina Titus.

Says the NV Energy troubleman:

You’ve got Sharron Angle, a total extremist who wants to eliminate Social Security, Medicare, the Departments of Education and Energy, unemployment insurance and who knows what else.

And then you have Sen. Harry Reid, who has a solid record of bringing good paying jobs to Nevada and supports creating a fair economic playing field for workers.

IBEW members throughout the Silver State are mobilizing to let working families know about Angle’s extreme anti-worker agenda.

Angle, a former state assemblywoman, was a surprise victor in the Republican Party primary, drawing most of her support from the far right of the GOP.

Now many of her controversial statements are drawing the ire of seniors, the unemployed and union members throughout the state.

Southern Nevada Joint Apprenticeship Director Madison Burnett (left) and Sen. Harry Reid throw the switch to a 2.4 kilowatt wind turbine housed at Las Vegas Local 357’s training center last April.

Attacking Reid for voting to extend unemployment benefits, Angle told a radio interviewer that the program doesn’t “really benefit anyone.”  During her primary campaign, she referred to the unemployed as “spoiled.”

Says Grimm:

We have nearly 15 percent unemployment in Nevada. I can’t believe Angle could really be that out of touch with the problems working people face.

She also made headlines for attacking Social Security and Medicare, announcing at candidates’ forum in May that “we need to phase out Medicare and Social Security in favor of something privatized.”

Says Local 1245 retiree Tom Bird:

She’s made it clear she wants to privatize Social Security, just like Bush tried to do

Bird, who is vice president of the Sparks/Reno Local 1245 Retirees Club, has been working with members of the Nevada Alliance for Retired Americans to call attention to Angle’s anti-Social Security agenda. They have held emergency meetings across the state and have organized pickets at Angle’s office.

Retirees protest in front of the office of U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle,
who has called for the privatization of Social Security and Medicare.

Many elected GOP officials, including the mayor of Reno, see her positions as so extreme that they have endorsed Reid. 

On the issue of the economy, Angle has gone on record during a town hall meeting saying that it wouldn’t be her responsibility as senator to create jobs.

 As your senator, I'm not in the business of creating jobs....People ask me, what are you going to do to develop jobs in your state? Well, that's not my job.

Las Vegas Local 357 Business Manager David Jones contrasts this with Reid’s strong pro-jobs, pro-investment record. For years the construction industry relied on the booming commercial sector for work– a sector that all but dried up when the housing bubble burst in 2007. But, thanks in part to Reid’s efforts, Nevada is on its way to becoming one of the leading centers for alternative energy technology – particularly solar – which is putting IBEW members back on the job.

More than 200 IBEW members went to work this summer on Copper Mountain – the largest solar photovoltaic power system in North America – a project Jones credits Reid for helping to make a reality. Many of the project’s workers were trained at Local 357’s photovoltaics lab, which was funded in part by a Reid-backed Department of Energy grant.

Says Jones:

Reid has been instrumental in helping to make these projects happen, pushing federal and state officials to invest in our workforce and the industry.

The IBEW is also mobilizing for Rep. Dina Titus, who has been a supporter of the labor movement since she was first elected in 2008.

Says Grimm:

We need to keep our members focused on the issues that affect them  the most – jobs, retirement security, workers’ rights – and on every single one of them, Reid and Titus are on our side, while Angle is on the other.