7-14-08, 10:14 am
Original source: AFL-CIO Veteran on McCain's Economic Record July 10, 2008
'Every Vet Respects John McCain's War Record; It's His Record in the Senate I Have a Problem With,' Union Vet Jim Wasser Says in Ad
The AFL-CIO today announced the formation of a national Union Veterans Council that will enlist millions of veterans to improve urgent veterans’ and pocketbook issues and expose the records of candidates for office at every level on these issues. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the new council will reach out to 2.1 million union veterans as well as other veterans and current enlistees in the Armed Services who are union members. As its first action, the council launched a television spot featuring union electrician Jim Wasser, a Vietnam combat veteran, calling on working people to let Sen. John McCain know that his economic agenda is “not what we need.”
Sweeney, AFL-CIO Building & Construction Trades Council President Mark Ayers – a former Navy aviator who will chair the Council – and Wasser made the announcement from Dayton, Ohio.
“We’re forming this Union Veterans Council to bring together union members who are veterans to speak out on the issues that matter the most to them – in this year’s election and beyond,” Sweeney said. “With the formation of the Union Veterans Council, veterans will be front and center in the effort to put our country back on track.” He said the council will push candidates for answers to veterans’ questions: Will our leaders fully fund the VA? Will they push to make sure those who have served get the full education and health benefits they deserve? Will they make sure our country has good jobs available for all, including vets and their families when they return?”
The Union Vets Council has also launched a website (www.unionveterans.org).
In addition to the ad and the website, the Union Veterans Council will:
• Dispatch union veterans to go door-to-door and to worksites to talk to union members about key issues; • Launch a first-ever online campaign to union veterans; • Form state councils of union veterans (with the first seven announced today) and bring together top union leaders who are veterans to strategize and mobilize veterans at all levels of the union movement; • Identify and track union veterans for the first time.
While noting that union veterans respect Sen. John McCain’s service to his country, Ayers said McCain’s record in the U.S. Senate is out of step with where our country needs to go to serve veterans.
“Not only has McCain voted the wrong way on veterans issues – such as opposing increased funding for veterans’ health care the last four years in a row – but he also doesn’t support middle class people’s issues,” Ayers said. “He wants to tax people’s health care benefits, and supports unfair trade deals, including NAFTA.”
In conjunction with the formation of the Council, Sweeney announced the release of a television ad featuring an interview with Wasser, an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) union electrician and US Navy veteran who served in Vietnam. In the ad, Wasser, says that McCain’s record shows his priorities on issues like job investment and veterans’ health care are not those of veterans and working families.
“Every vet respects John McCain’s war record,” Wasser says in the ad. “It’s his record in the Senate I have a problem with.”
The television ad began airing today in six states: Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. The ad will run in communities in those states that have been hard hit by the failed Bush economic agenda and rapidly souring economy. The ad will run for three weeks, through the end of July. It can be viewed at http://www.aflcio.org/issues/politics/unionveterans2008_videos.cfm
The formation of the national Union Veterans Council coincides with the formation of state councils in five states – Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, Ohio and West Virginia. In the coming weeks, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Michigan and other states are expected to form councils.
The effort is part of the broadest mobilization of working people in history. The AFL-CIO is currently engaging more than 13 million union voters in 24 priority states on issues such as health care reform, good jobs, fair trade and the freedom to form and join unions. In early March, the AFL-CIO launched its national “McCain Revealed” campaign, which focuses on educating union voters about John McCain’s anti-worker record and plans and calling on McCain to chart a different course that puts working families above corporate interests.
From AFL-CIO
