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From The Director
Look at the facts, then you decide

By now you have undoubtedly been saturated with information from both political parties as to how you should vote.

It tends to make a simple issue, such as casting a ballot on Election Day, a very dismal process. With all that’s been said and done by the national political parties you start to wonder, “What am I to believe?”

I, too, have seen and heard things on television and in newspapers that calls me to wonder sometimes, just what is the truth? The only reasonable answer I can give you is to look at the facts.

The facts are voting records and policies that have been implemented during the last four years. A careful review of them should help you to determine how these decisions affect yourself, a working American and a member of organized labor.

Jobs — Bush supports sending U.S. jobs overseas and giving corporations huge tax breaks for doing so. He thinks so called “free” trade is a good thing for American workers.

Overtime — The Bush Ad ministration imposed rules that will take away the overtime pay of 6 million workers, including America ’s veterans who learned their skills while in the military.

Social Security— George W. raided $500 billion from the Social Security trust fund to pay for tax cuts for the elite rich.

Retirement — Bush opposed strict protections of workers’ pensions and tried to eliminate worker protections against 401(k) abuse.

Health Care — Family health insurance premiums have increased by nearly 50 percent under Bush and 5 million more Americans have lost their health care. The Bush Administration’s Medicare reform is a blatant rip-off of the taxpayers money, giving billions of dollars to the drug companies while denying the government the right to negotiate lower prices with the drug companies like they do in Canada and most everywhere else in the world.

• Worker Safety — Bush signed legislation to overturn the nation’s first ergonomics standard designed to protect workers that took 10 years in the making.

• 40-Hour Workweek — Bush supports allowing employers to choose to replace overtime pay with compensatory time off, at their choosing, not yours.

• Minimum wage — Bush opposes increasing the minimum wage and has backed creation of a sub-minimum wage for some workers.

• Freedom to join a union — Bush is opposed to workers being able to join a union, free from employer intimidation, harassment, and threats. What is more basic than a worker's right to assemble? No one gets harassed like this if they want to organize a corporation.
For sources and more information on the above issues, click on www.aflcio.org.

The next four years will have a dramatic impact on working Americans and organized labor. Don’t take my word for it. Research the issues I have mentioned and do one thing on Nov. 2. Vote.

And don’t just go to the polls alone. Take as many people with you in your community and family as you can fit into your car. Rejoice in your primary freedom of democracy — the freedom to vote.

I ask you to support John Kerry and John Edwards so that working Americans and organized labor will once again have a seat at the table of democracy.