Barack Obama Supports Union Labor

Barack Obama told Iowa’s largest union, that as President he would walk the picket line with them. Obama criticized President
Bush’s policies towards working people. “We are facing a Washington that has thrown open its doors to the most anti-union, anti-worker forces we’ve seen in generations,” Obama said. “What we need to make real today is the idea that in this country we value the labor of every American.” “I stood on the picket line and marched with workers at the Congress Hotel in Chicago last week,” Obama said. “I had marched with them four years earlier and I told them when I left that if they were still fighting four years from now, I’d be back on that picket line as president of the United States and we’ll get the Congress Hotel organized.” Obama added, “I won’t just vote the right way with you, I will stand with you.” Obama told the crowd that he has worked for the working people since he began politics. He cited his years as a community organizer in Chicago, which brought him closer to people that are struggling. “When I talk about hope, when I talk about change, when I talk about holding America up to its ideals of opportunity and equality, this isn’t just the rhetoric of a campaign for me, it’s been the cause of a life; a cause I will work for and fight for every day as your president,” Obama said. John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, and Bill Richardson also addressed the convention of Council 61 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Alan Cosgrove