The TWU’s push in the first full day of the 2014 Legislative and COPE Conference was to educate and train TWU members to be effective lobbyists on Capitol Hill and back in their home districts.
Members heard from Ed Wytkind, President of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department, Representative Brad Schneider (D-IL), and Global Trade Watch Executive Director Lori Wallach. In the afternoon, after an intensive overview of TWU’s legislative agenda, members met with their elected representatives on Capitol Hill.
[youtube_sc url=”http://youtu.be/iOEWzrsQ_MA” title=”2014%20TWU%20Legislative%20and%20COPE%20Conference”]
“We are working to build alliances with others with whom we have common goals,” said International President Harry Lombardo, in the Conference’s opening speech.
“This means getting out into our communities, joining together with our friends in government, marching with our brothers and sisters at the ATU with whom we’ll be rallying for transit funding tomorrow. The TWU is not an island. Organized labor requires cooperation. To win, we need them — and they need us as well.”
In the morning, TWU members received hours of lobbying and issues training from TWU International Government Affairs Representative Brendan Danaher.
“Talk fast, lay out your agenda, and hold them to it,” said Danaher. “The TWU’s slogan is ‘We Move America.’ For us, that’s not just about moving people on the job, but creating a movement for working Americans.”
The skills TWU members developed during the morning’s workshops are the foundation for implementing effective programs of political action across the country in our home districts.
“We want to prepare you to be as effective as you can be during your meetings with elected representatives this week,” said International Secretary-Treasurer Alex Garcia. “But know that the real work begins after this Conference ends, when you return to your hometowns and engage politically on the local level.”
Talking to Conference attendees about the dangerous funding shortfall for mass transit, TTD President Ed Wytkind said, “Public transit binds our cities together. I don’t need to tell you how important it is for working people to have safe, reliable transportation to their jobs every day.”
“We need to show people that organized labor is a force for change,” he added. “Unions give workers a path into the middle class. We are an example of how people can organize and create power. It is strong unions, not politicians’ empty promises that are going to close the wage gap.”
This conference is a springboard for aggressive, concerted TWU political action that creates real results for our members and all working men and women.
“We are putting our money where our mouth is,” said Lombardo. “That means that we are not contributing to candidates just because of their party affiliation. We have said that we will look to those who are elected and those who are running and if they support us on our issues, we will support them.
“You will see by the speakers who come this week that we are committed to delivering on that — they are Democrats and they are Republicans. If they are with us on our issues, we are with them.”
Read MORE HERE