MBCLC Endorsements for November 2020 Election

PDF of Nov 2020 Endorsements

Sisters and Brothers,

No matter where we come from or what we look like, we all deserve an equitable chance to pursue our dreams. As a labor movement, we come together to reject the politics of hate and division. We are fighting back against self-interested politicians and greedy corporations who try to divide us while they hijack our economy, our democracy, and our government.

The need for union activism grows as more and more working people slip into debt and poverty, fail to maintain the same standard of living as their parents, and face an ever-widening gap between rich and poor.

Along with my union Sisters & Brothers, we have gained a voice to be heard in the streets, in the workplace, and in the halls of government. Such access was, at one time, reserved for the privileged few for whom doors opened based on their fortune, family history, and network of connections. Unions begin to level the playing field so that worker and family concerns are taken into account.

Union members count on elected officials to be fully conscious of the human cost and benefit of every decision that comes before them.  At their best, they carry forward the hopes and aspirations of working Americans; support for union concerns by candidates for public office is in the public interest!

When a union supports campaigns advocating for public policy, it is based on the voices of union members who pull together across diverse backgrounds, viewpoints, and resources and democratically choose the candidates we believe we can endorse to carry our priorities forward.

Sisters and brothers, below you will find a list of our endorsed candidates for this election cycle*.

--- Cesar Lara, Executive Director

PDF of Nov 2020 Endorsements

John J. Sweeney (1934-2021), AFL-CIO President Emeritus

John Sweeney, who led an era of transformative change in America’s labor movement, passed away Feb. 1 at the age of 86.

Trumka: 'Biden is committed' to strengthening unions

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka discusses why America needs a strong labor movement and how the Biden administration is committed to strengthening unions.

How the Coronavirus Pandemic May Be Causing Support of Labor Unions to Rise

“This pandemic has amplified [public support] even more. It showed how helpless workers are without a union. They couldn’t even get PPE and unions were able to get it for them,” says Trumka. “For years and years and years, people that we call ‘essential workers’ were invisible. It was as if no one knew they existed. They did their jobs every day to keep the country and the economy going.

Biden Moves Quickly to Show Union Workers That Democrats Care

Major labor leaders like Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, are more optimistic about the prospects for organized labor than they’ve been in many years. “I know what he is. Joe Biden’s a blue-collar guy,” said Trumka, who like Biden is from a working-class area in Pennsylvania and has known the president for 40 years. “He understands working people, the importance of a paycheck, importance of health and safety on the job, importance of having a union .… He understands all of that. It’s not something he picked up in the polls. It’s what he believes.”

UWUA Family Member Pursuing Master of Public Health; Union Plus Scholarship Deadline This Weekend

The 2021 Union Plus Scholarship application deadline is this Sunday, Jan. 31. The Union Plus Scholarship Program awards scholarships based on outstanding academic achievement, personal character, financial need and commitment to the values of organized labor. Union Plus Scholarship awards are granted to students attending a two-year college, four-year college, graduate school, or recognized technical or trade school.

Report: Activision Blizzard Calls Policy To Make Hiring More Diverse ‘Unworkable’

According to AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler, its Rooney Rule proposal is “clearly workable” as evidenced by other big companies that have adopted similar policies. “Diversity and inclusion at all levels is important for companies to succeed, particularly in industries where there has been a historic underrepresentation of women and minorities in senior level positions,” Shuler told Kotaku in an email. “We are pleased that many banks have adopted diverse candidate search policies, and we are now turning our attention to tech companies.

What Biden and Congress can do to support unions

In the last Congress, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the US House of Representatives passed the most significant worker empowerment legislation since the Great Depression by creating a much fairer process for forming a union. It is called the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or PRO Act. After an anti-worker majority blocked it in the Senate, reintroducing the PRO Act, passing it in both chambers of Congress and getting Biden's signature is vital to our economic recovery. The PRO Act would protect and empower workers to exercise their freedom to organize and bargain.

Amazon Union Drive Takes Hold in Unlikely Place

The largest, most viable effort to unionize Amazon in many years began last summer not in a union stronghold like New York or Michigan, but at a Fairfield Inn outside of Birmingham, in the right-to-work state of Alabama. It was late in the summer and a group of employees from a nearby Amazon warehouse contacted an organizer in the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union. They were fed up, they said, with the way the online retailer tracked their productivity, and wanted to discuss unionizing.

Biden's 'Buy American' Manufacturing Order Called 'Good First Step' by Labor

“This executive order will close loopholes that allow agencies to sidestep Buy American requirements and increase the thresholds for domestic content,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in a statement. “This order is a good first step in revitalizing U.S. manufacturing, which [President Donald] Trump’s policies failed to do over the past four years,” Trumka said. The order will modify the rules for the Buy American program, reports the Associated Press, making it harder for contractors to qualify for a waiver and sell foreign-made goods to federal agencies.

Union Family Member Aspires to Become Orthopedic Surgeon; Union Plus Scholarship Application Deadline Is Jan. 31

Makaelah Murray, a student athlete at Howard University in Washington, D.C., is among the 2020 Union Plus Scholarship winners. Murray is a biology major at Howard and a member of the women’s soccer program. She graduated with honors from San Joaquin Delta College and aspires to become an orthopedic surgeon to help other athletes like her recover from their injuries. While at Delta, she completed, with distinction, the Leadership Education for Aspiring Physicians (LEAP) program at the Stanford University School of Medicine.