United Food and Commercial Workers Union Endorses Obama 2012

The 1.3 million members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) are ready to fight for the future of our country and to stand with leaders who will stand up for working families. President Barack Obama is that leader.

I am proud to announce that the UFCW is endorsing President Obama’s reelection campaign because our members understand how much is at stake in this election. President Obama has stood up for the jobless, the uninsured, the middle class taxpayer, Medicare recipients, working women, and accountability from Wall Street. UFCW members are ready to mobilize for the president and to elect more leaders who will stand with him in Congress and statehouses across the country.

Cashiers and grocery workers are ready to stand up to elect leaders who will ensure good jobs stay in their communities and that their children can achieve their dream for a better life. Meatpackers and food processors are ready to stand up to elect leaders who will keep fighting to hold Wall Street gamblers accountable to the home owners and retirees who have invested in their future and deserve security and honesty from financial institutions.

Working families are struggling during this recession - a recession created by Bush-era tax breaks, lack of financial regulation and unnecessary military escalation. Turning our economy around is going to take a tremendous effort - an effort that must be led by a president who speaks for the 99 percent of Americans who clock into work every morning, instead of those who simply watch stock tickers all day.

UFCW members are energized because corporate-backed politicians at the federal and state level have launched an all-out assault on working people. President Obama is fighting back.

UFCW members have never stopped fighting back in statehouses and in their communities. They are ready to win the fight for the White House in 2012. The UFCW will be mobilizing, organizing and energizing our members, their friends and families to keep President Obama in the White House and to elect a Congress that works hard for hard working Americans. Ours is an enthusiastic choice to stand with President Obama as he fights against political opposition that seeks to enrich a select few at the expense of millions of regular Americans.

FOOD AND COMMERCIAL WORKERS LAUD PASSAGE OF SWEEPING HEALTH CARE REFORMS

Statement by Joe Hansen, President of United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW)

Washington DC— Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed health care reforms that will better serve all Americans. Thanks to the commitment of President Obama and Democratic Members of Congress, we now have reform legislation that has eluded our nation’s grasp for a century.

This is an achievement that will rank among the highest in our national experience.

For the countless hard-working families across the country suffering at the hands of our nation’s badly broken health care system, the passage of this bill represents an unprecedented leap forward in the struggle to ensure all Americans have access to affordable health care—and makes good on President Obama’s promise to lead our country through the difficult challenges facing the American people on this issue.

With the passage of this bill comes an end to the worst of insurance company abuses. No longer will Americans have to fear being denied health insurance due to pre-existing conditions. There will be no more lifetime limits on the dollar value of benefits. No more will insurance companies be allowed to retroactively cancel insurance coverage when a policy holder becomes ill.

Aside from reigning in insurance company greed, the bill also extends coverage to millions of Americans who would otherwise go without, reduces prescription drug costs for seniors, while encouraging employers to fulfill their obligation of providing benefits to their workers.

UFCW members participated in the health care debate in nearly every congressional district across the country. They made calls and wrote letters, rallied and marched, visited district offices and traveled to Washington D.C., to meet with elected representatives. UFCW members won’t forget the representatives who voted “yes” on these reforms and stood with working people and families rather than the insurance company lobbyists.

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About Joe Hansen: President of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Joe has played a key role in the negotiation of contracts covering hundreds of thousands of workers in the retail and food manufacturing industries. An original member of the Citizens’ Health Care Working Group, Hansen served as the sole worker representative in that congressionally chartered body. The group facilitated a groundbreaking national dialogue that resulted in a bipartisan consensus on the need for affordable, quality care for all Americans. About the UFCW: United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) represents more than 1.3 million workers, primarily in the retail and meatpacking, food processing and poultry industries. The UFCW protects the rights of workers and strengthens America’s middle class by fighting for health care reform, living wages, retirement security, safe working conditions and the right to unionize so that working men and women and their families can realize the American Dream, and is a charter member of organization Health Care for America Now - a key voice in America’s health care reform movement.

Over 200,000 rally for immigration reform

Over 200,000 Americans gathered on the nation's mall today to demand Congress take action and pass comprehensive immigration reform.

If you couldn't make it to the rally, you can still do your part to make reform a reality by calling Congress. Go to www.ufcwaction.org to sign up and make your call.

UFCW members were out in force. You can check out some of the photos from the day below:

Health Care Advocates Storm Chamber of Commerce

UFCW members and other health care advocates stormed the Chamber of Commerce today, surrounding the building and spilling over the sidewalks and into the street along H Street in front of the White House.

The message was clear- it's time for health care that serves the American people, not wealthy corporate lobbyists.

Photos from today's event:

Workers rally for Employee Free Choice

Here's some video from yesterday's rally for Employee Free Choice:


Rep. George Miller (D-CA) addresses crowd rallying for Employee Free Choice from UFCW on Vimeo.

[Blooper alert: Someone knocks the camera out of my hands midway through the clip. were all very excited.]

You can also check out photos from the event below:

Parade Marchers Display Diversity, Strength of America’s Workers

For Maria Somma, it was a dream come true. The native of Vietnam and naturalized citizen was one of the 265 union members who braved freezing temperatures today to join representatives from across the country and our armed forces to participate in the official inaugural parade for President Obama. The contingent of union members taking part in the parade included members from the AFL-CIO, Change to Win and the National Education Association.

With 15 union members riding a union-made float and 250 marchers alongside, the workers’ contingent was one of the largest groups in the parade. This is the first time in recent memory that workers have participated in the parade.

Somma, who lives in Pittsburgh and is a member of the United Steelworkers, rode the float representing the AFL-CIO constituency group Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA). She says labor’s participation shows the power of the American Dream for all people.

It’s very exciting to be welcoming a person of color into the White House and to be a part of history. Even if it was minus 20, I would be glad to be here. This is an incredible achievement for this country. For Barack Obama to come from his background and rise to the top is not the typical American story. His inauguration is part of the transition of this nation to fully embrace all its citizens.

Marching with a banner, “America’s Workers: United for Change,” participants also carried flags that represented the issues most important to working families: an “Economy That Works for All,” “Great Public Schools,” “Good Jobs Green Jobs” and “Health Care for All.” The overall theme of the labor float is “Honoring America’s Workers.”

- James Parks, AFL-CIO Now blog; click here for his complete report.

ACTION ALERT: IS HEALTH CARE THE NEXT MORTGAGE CRISIS?

Yesterday, Paul Krugman of the New York Times wrote a great editorial reflecting on the devastating effect McCain’s proposed changes to our health care system would have on working people.

Currently, companies don’t have to pay taxes on the money they spend on employee health care plans. McCain wants to change that. Basically, he wants to take away the tax breaks given to employers and offer much smaller breaks to individuals.

This might sound good at first. After all, your employer has more money than you do, right? So why do they need a break?

But health care costs have already gone up so much that many companies are scaling back their health benefits as it is. Without the tax breaks they currently receive, many companies are going to start dropping plans altogether.

The McCain camp has spun the plan to sound like you’ve now got the right to choose your own coverage. That his plan will fix our nation’s health care crisis by putting it in the hands of American families.

What American families will really have in their hands is a stack of bills they may not be able to pay and plans, like HSAs, that don’t offer real coverage. The $2,500-$5,000 tax break McCain is offering just isn’t going to pay for the over $12,000 that the average family plan actually costs.

You’d think with the U.S. market a state of crisis and families losing their homes because they can’t pay their mortgages, McCain would have learned a thing or two about what happens when you deregulate and leave the well-being of the country up to the whims of the free market.

The health insurance industry is already one of the least regulated businesses in America today. What other service do you pay for when you don't need it, and then get denied the service when you do? At least personal savings accounts at the banks are insured by the FDIC, but where do you go when your insurance company denies care due to a pre-existing condition?

Today, Senator Barack Obama announced his support for Health Care for America Now, a coalition the UFCW joined to fight for quality, affordable health care for everyone. He’s pledged to fight on the side of the American people--not big business.

Tomorrow, we need your help. We’ve got Obama’s support, but we need to know where the rest of Congress stands. Are they with the American people or are they going to leave us on our own until the health care crisis explodes into a catastrophe?

We mobilize tomorrow. If you read this, we need you to be a part of the solution and make the call to hold Congress accountable. So tell your friends and tell your family. Call your representatives and ask them: which side are you on?

Learn more at www.healthcareforamericanow.org

This is Our Moment, Our Candidate

Barack Obama officially became John McCain’s opponent in the 152-day dash to the White House Tuesday. Obama’s historic run for and winning of the Democratic nomination was marked around the world, but now it’s time to work.

Senator Obama’s candidacy reflects our nation’s progress, but more importantly it represents the promise of a better tomorrow. A tomorrow in which all workers have their rights protected and their hard work respected; a tomorrow that brings affordable health care, real retirement security, economic prosperity, national security and worker safety.

For the past five months, the UFCW has mobilized its 1.3 million members across the country to support Senator Obama’s candidacy, and his message of hope and change has struck a chord with UFCW members of all ages. The UFCW will continue to mobilize, organize and energize our members to support Senator Obama and fight to regain the rights and protections that America’s workers have lost under the Bush Administration.

Obama said Wednesday he spoke with New York Senator Hillary Clinton, and he is confident the party can be brought together. Many Clinton supporters are revisiting the “Dream Ticket” rumors from a few months ago, pushing for Obama to name Clinton as his running mate. Privately Clinton has said she’d be interested in the VP slot. There are many othere potential running mates listed here, let us know who you think would be the best veep.

Senator McCain welcomed the Illinios Senator to the race by criticizing Obama’s inexperience and attempting to woo Clinton supporters onto the straight-talk bandwagon.

The past seven years of the Bush Administration have been a hard road to travel for America’s workers as they struggle to cope with the high cost of housing, health care, food, fuel and education. The fragile state of the economy, coupled with a sense of national foreboding, has led many Americans to believe that they will never achieve the American Dream of owning a home, providing their families with health care coverage, or retiring comfortably.

“This is our moment,” Obama said Tuesday night in Minneapolis.

Can we capitalize on it? Yes We Can!

More than Just Another Super Tuesday for Obama

Barack Obama's campaign for the presidency of the United States is expecting to celebrate a milestone next Tuesday following the primaries in Kentucky and Oregon. The Obama camp is predicting the candidate will capture a majority of the pledged delegates.

Although it will not give him enough delegates to officially make him the Democratic nominee, Obama is viewing this as a signal from voters: we are ready for change. Read more about Obama's delegate lead and the upcoming primaries here.

Superdelegates Breaking for Obama

According to a story published by the Associated Press Tuesday, presidential candidate Barack Obama could officially have enough delegates to win the nomination within three weeks.

With the West Virginia primary looming on the horizon, and all polls there indicating a Hillary Clinton victory, Obama picked up four more superdelegates Tuesday including Indiana Representative Joe Donnelly, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Former DNC chair Roy Romer, and Anita Bonds, chairwoman of the Democratic Party in the District of Columbia.

Read the complete article here.

Barack Obama: The American Dream Candidate

Today, Change To Win released the latest in an ongoing series of American Dream Surveys, tracking how America's workers see the future of the American Dream.

If you want the raw data, here's a link to the survey topline in PDF format. But if you just want an executive summary, here's a few of the most interesting findings...

More voters than ever think the American Dream is at risk: In September 2007, 70% of those we surveyed agreed with this sentiment; today, that figure is up to 74%.

More voters than ever think the current administration's policies have made things worse: Back in September, 57% of respondents said that the Bush Administration's policies had made the American Dream harder to achieve; today that figure is up to 65% -- nearly two out of three.

Voters see Barack Obama as the candidate of the American Dream: in a three-way race with Hillary Clinton and John McCain, a plurality of respondents (31%) say that Barack Obama has the best vision for restoring the American Dream. Strikingly, John McCain comes in second in the three-way matchup, with 22%; Clinton trails with 18%.

Voters see Barack Obama as the candidate least influenced by corporations and CEOs: In a two-way matchup between McCain and Obama, 39% of respondents describe McCain as more influenced by big business, compared to just 19% for Obama. When Obama is replaced by Clinton in the matchup, voters are closely divided, with 33% saying Clinton is more influenced by big business compared to 30% for McCain.

For a more detailed summary, here's a memo laying out the survey's key findings, also in PDF format.

Obama, Clinton and the Texas Two-Step

Contrary to what it sounds like on news broadcasts heard/read ‘round the world, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will not “dosado” or “promenade” today.

The Texas Two-Step is not a move Obama will bust on Ellen.

The primary elections today see the heavy-hitting Senators battling for delegates in Ohio, Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island. How exactly the delegates get dolled out is as mysterious as why high school phys-ed classes still devote a lesson to square dancing.

The basics: there are 370 delegate votes at stake in today’s primary.

The Lonestar state, though, awards delegates in a two-step process, which could ultimately have the winner of the popular vote receive fewer delegates.

Here’s how it works – Two thirds of Texas’ delegates (126) will be awarded based on primary voting. The remaining third (67) will be awarded based on caucuses.

The caucuses have been Obama’s stage. The former community organizer excels in these grassroots-based type events. His message Yes We Can resonates loudest at these gatherings. Still confused? Watch this video from the Washington Post explaining the process.

No one argues that Obama has a delegate lead over Clinton, but delegate calculators vary in what the exact lead maybe -- reports vary from a 110-vote lead to a 160-vote lead.

Ohio’s vote delegates are split as well. The Buckeye state awards 92 from district-based voting and 49 based on statewide results.

Many pundits say Texas and Ohio are not only must-win, but must-win-by-a-landslide in order for Clinton to remain in the race.

So where are we going? What do we want to change and how can we change it? It’s yet to be decided. In the mean time…

Honor your Corner, Swing to the Left and run as fast as you can to the nearest polling station. Nothing will change if we don’t vote.