STATEMENT
FROM UNITE HERE GENERAL PRESIDENT BRUCE RAYNOR ON OBAMA VICTORY
New York - Barack Obama’s victory is a victory for
working people across this country. Regardless of race, gender,
religion, ethnicity, immigration status, sexual orientation – all
working people have taken a giant step forward today.
Barack has renewed our faith in what is possible for those who are
trying to stay in the middle class and for those who are seeking to
become a part of the middle class.
With great vision, he talked with us about what he wants to accomplish
for the American people. And with great candor, he called for every
person to become engaged in the effort.
As the first labor union to endorse Barack, UNITE HERE took that call
seriously. From the strength of our nearly one million members and
retirees, we mobilized thousands to get out the vote in more than a
dozen states. We knocked on more than 350,000 doors; and during this
past weekend alone, we had more than 3,000 volunteers talking with
voters in battleground states.
Barack’s insight and leadership drive a policy agenda that supports
those working people who have formed a union, as well as those who have
not yet formed a union. He is committed to ensuring that working
families have wages that enable them to put food on the table, cutting
taxes for 95 percent of workers and their families, securing healthcare
for all Americans, promoting fair trade and not “free trade” that sends
good jobs overseas, defending the right of workers to freely join
unions by passing the Employee Free Choice Act, establishing a path to
citizenship for undocumented immigrants, fighting the growth of income
inequality, and guaranteeing retirement security for all workers so
that growing old does not mean growing poor.
With Barack’s victory, as well as Democratic gains in both the House
and the Senate, we can make real reforms to improve the lives of every
union member in this country and every worker who wants a union.
To be sure, the current economic crisis will present great challenges.
But we are inspired by the change that is possible. And we believe in
Barack Obama - a man who understands the experiences of working people.
A man who, more than twenty years ago, took a job as a community
organizer in Chicago to fight for families devastated by steel plant
closings – to fight for working people.
UNITE HERE is a labor union representing 465,000 workers in the
apparel, textile, hotel, food service, gaming, and laundry industries.
www.unitehere.org
- 30 -