Union Activists Counter Unprecedented Election Cash from Corporations, Front Groups

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/10/13/union-activists-counter-unprecedented-election-cash-from-corporations-front-groups/

by Mike Hall, Oct 13, 2010

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L8TJOzWTcU&feature=player_embedded

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxt408pG3_U&feature=player_embedded

West Virginia Fire Fighters (IAFF), California Ironworkers and Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) and AFGE members across the country are fighting back against the hundreds of millions of dollars Republicans, corporations and phony front groups are pouring into the November elections.

In West Virginia, you’ll remember that a Republican TV ad for multimillionaire and mostly Florida resident John Raese’s campaign for the U.S. Senate used actors—encouraged to come to the auditions looking “hicky” in trucker caps and flannel shirts—to portray West Virginians.

The outcry over that condescending slap in the face to real West Virginia voters forced the National Republican Senatorial Committee to pull the ad last week. Now, some IAFF members who are real West Virginians are on the air (see video) backing Gov. Joe Manchin (D). In a commercial airing around the Mountain State, Mark Roberts, a Dunbar firefighter (IAFF Local 1228 member), says:

Joe Manchin doesn’t hire Philadelphia actors to play hicks in his ads. We need a real West Virginian to fight for us in the U.S. Senate.

IAFF President Harold Schaitberger says the Raese ad was offensive:

We didn’t have to ship in East Coast actors who pretend to support Joe because West Virginia is filled with firefighters who are proud to support him. West Virginians realize that Joe Manchin has been a fantastic governor, and they also understand that his legacy of service provides evidence that he will be an even better senator.

Meanwhile on the West Coast, two unemployed Ironworkers members are leading the California Labor Federation’s Good Jobs Express tour. The three-day, five-city tour kicked off this morning in Anaheim. It will follow the proposed 400-mile high-speed rail line that gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown supports and his Republican opponent Meg Whiteman vows to kill.

FULL story at link.

[DoBotherMe]

1. K n R

Thanks for keeping us informed. My stepdad was a Teamster and my ex husband helped raise our two children with benefits and wages secured by the CWA. UNION! Dana ; )