Convention 2008: Why it Matters
Today and tonight, more than 400 working men and women from across Oregon are driving to Seaside for the Oregon AFL-CIO’s 50th biennial Convention. Between now and Wednesday, they will celebrate their accomplishments of the past two years -- and chart an ambitious course for building our labor movement and scoring victories in November 2008.
You can be sure they will have President Bush’s veto of SCHIP in mind as they decide where to steer the voter education and mobilization momentum of their 145,000-member organization. Several of the resolutions that members are bringing forward deal with -- imagine this -- improving health care affordability and electing leaders who will fight for lower costs.
Why does this matter to Oregon as a whole? In the past few years, Oregon’s union members -- our teachers, nurses, fire fighters, steelworkers and more -- have been among the most politically active in the nation. By knocking on tens of thousands of doors and talking to their co-workers each election cycle, they’ve convinced their co-workers and family members to make their voices heard.
In November 2006, when we cross-referenced the Oregon Secretary of State’s official voting results with our own union membership lists, we found that union members and the other registered voters in union households voted at a rate about 13% higher than the general electorate.
And when union members act on the resolutions they pass at Conventions like the one being held in Seaside, they make Oregon’s workplaces and communities stronger for all working families -- not just their own. Two examples:
They led the charge to raise the state’s minimum wage to among the highest in the nation -- twice, in 1996 and in 2002.
For years, they have supported legislation to bring renewable energy and good jobs to Oregon, restore much-needed funds to our local public schools, put more public safety officers in our communities and create a rainy day fund – and then, in 2006, they helped elect the decision-makers who would pass these reforms in the most worker-friendly Legislative Session in decades.
Because of the work Oregon’s union members have done to create good jobs and strong communities, several top state and national leaders will be joining them in Seaside: U.S. Presidential candidates John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich, Gov. Ted Kulongoski, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, U.S. Representatives Earl Blumenauer, Darlene Hooley, David Wu, several of the nation’s top labor leaders, and many more will be there to celebrate.
So what does this have to do with the President’s State Children’s Health Insurance Program veto? Because, for as much work as Oregon’s union members and other advocates for children and health care know, the President chose corporate profits over the health and peace of mind of working families. This is wrong.
Change needs to occur in the White House, in Congress, and at the ballot box if we are to fill our moral obligation to cover the uninsured children in Oregon and nationwide.
In the meantime, our members know that the veto makes it more critical than ever that they work hard to pass Measure 50, the Healthy Kids ballot measure that’s being fought by millions of Big Tobacco dollars.
And our 400 Convention delegates this weekend, representing 145,000 of their co-workers and joining 10 million other AFL-CIO members nationwide, are gearing up to make health care the number-one issue in the November 2008 election.
If the past few years in Oregon are any indication, you know that it’s just a matter of time until the decisions they make this weekend will make a difference for Oregon’s working families in November 2008 and in Oregon for years to come.
Labels: Convention, Dennis Kucinich, John Edwards, labor union, Oregon AFL-CIO, SCHIP, Tom Chamberlain
posted by Oregon AFL-CIO at
9:54 AM
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