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Michigan IBEW Activists Mobilize for Pro-Worker Candidates, Initiatives

 

October 19, 2012

 

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IBEW activists in Michigan prepare for a labor walk to help get out the vote for worker-friendly candidates and state ballot questions.

Offshoring and outsourcing have hit working families in Michigan harder than most. That’s why IBEW members are working to help re-elect Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who has authored legislation that could help bring jobs back to the Great Lakes State.

 


“She’s a fighter for the middle class,” said Sixth District International Representative John Briston – who, as the union’s coordinator for political outreach in Michigan, has been leading labor walks, phone banks and other get-out-the-vote efforts to send Stabenow back to Washington, D.C. Said Briston:

When we go door to door or talk on the phone with union members, the thing that resonates most about Debbie is that she’s working very hard to bring jobs back to the U.S. and stop work from going overseas.

Stabenow sponsored the Bring Jobs Home Act, which would eliminate incentives and close tax loopholes that companies get when moving work out of the country, while giving new tax breaks to companies who decide to “re-shore” in America. The bill was stalled earlier this year by a GOP filibuster.

In an interview with the Macomb Daily this month, Stabenow highlighted her support for domestic manufacturingand pro-worker U.S. trade policies:

I don’t think we necessarily have a healthy economy unless we make things … And I don’t think we have a middle class unless we make things.

Her opponent, former U.S. RepresentativePete Hoekstra, voted three times while in office from 1993-2011 to give tax breaks to companies that ship jobs to countries like China. Hoekstra’s campaign has also received $5,000 from the anti-union Associated Builders & Contractors – a fact that Briston shares with IBEW members he talks with.

“Hoekstra is simply not good for working families,” Briston said. “He’s got a different agenda. He’s big business all the way.”

Hoekstra opposes project labor agreements and supports so-called “right-to-work” laws . He opposed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act which makes it easier for workers to fight for equal wages, saying, “That thing is a nuisance … it shouldn’t be the law.” Stabenow was a co-sponsor of the legislation, which President Obama signed into law in 2009.

IBEW activists are also mobilizing working families to vote in favor of Proposal 2, which would enshrine collective bargaining in the state’s constitution. Brian Groom, lead professional and industrial organizer for Michigan, said that households he and his fellow IBEW members visit are about 60 percent in favor of the law:

We tell people – especially nonunion families – that collective bargaining helps everyone across the board. In most scenarios, union members set the bar for pay and benefits, which brings up wages for all workers.

Once people who were somewhat negative on the idea understand what it’s about, they’re generally for it. If they aren’t union members, they usually get that the law would help them too.

For more coverage on key races, visit the IBEW’s Election 2012 Web site.

 

Homepage Photo used under a Creative Commons License from Flickr user Sean_Marshall.