PRIMARY ELECTION EDITION | THE 689 INFORMER
ATU 689 MAKE A MAKE A PLAN TO VOTE!
PRIMARY ELECTIONS!
IN THIS SPECIAL EDITION: BUILDING A PRO-WORKER MAJORITY IN PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, THE MARYLAND 4TH DISTRICT, THE IMPORTANCE OF COPE, UPCOMING DOOR KNOCKING DAYS, AND THE MD&DC AFL-CIO'S ENDORSEMENTS!
A MESSAGE FROM RAYMOND JACKSON PRESIDENT & BUSINESSS AGENT To the Sisters and Brothers of ATU Local 689, Public transit is in crisis! Across the country the federal funding that kept agencies afloat during the pandemic is set to run out. Ridership has started to recover, but not fast enough to close the budget gaps they might face in the next year. Now more than ever, we need champions who are going to fight for public transit and transit workers. We won't stand by as politicians say we're on our own or ignore their attacks on WMATA. All it takes is a few hearings on WMATA's "fiscal crisis" before every politician and media outlet is talking about our members as lazy and overpaid. We know that's not true! Our members work long hours, spending the best years of their lives away from their families! Our members create billions of dollars of value for this region, but only receive a fraction of that back in pay! Our members are the economic backbone of the working class in this area! But we know these attacks are coming and we can't go into this fight alone. We need elected allies in office that are on our side of these issues. We need champions that will fight back with us against these attacks and call them out for the lies they are. But Local 689's goal has never just been to get "Back2Good" and simply have WMATA work normally as its currently built. We are fighting for an expanded public transit system! We need to build the public transit system that this region will need in the future. We need a public transit system that is built to be the main transportation mode of choice for the millions that will call this region home in the future. We don't just want WMATA's six rail lines and 91 stations, we need more! We don't just want WMATA's current bus routes, we need more! We need to de-privatize many of the local bus systems and fight for them to be fully re-integrated into the WMATA system. We know that all of this is possible, because it has been done before in this region by this very same union. But this fight can't be done without allies that we can rely on in elected office! That's why we urge you to make a plan to vote in the primary elections for pro-union, pro-transit candidates! In Solidarity,
Raymond N. Jackson President and Business Agent
In This Edition:
Election Dates Our Process for Endorsements Our Champions for Transit Workers Prince George's County Endorsements
Montgomery County Endorsements District of Columbia Endorsements Make a Plan to Vote! Get Involved! Volunteer to GOTV!
THE LABOR MOVEMENT ATU Local 689 is not the only union. We're just one local group of workers, in just one industry and sector. Even though we're just a small part of it, we're proud to be a part of the broader labor movement. In the Amalgamated Transit Union alone we have over 240 local unions across the United States and Canada. Together with 56 other national & international unions, we all work together as part of an organization known as the American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organizations. But you're probably more likely to hear union members say "AFL-CIO." The AFL-CIO has a long history that goes all the way back to the late 1800s. As soon as unions started getting created, different unions realized we needed a way to resolve disputes between ourselves, coordinate our work, and speak with one voice on issues. As of 2022, the AFLCIO's affiliates have more than 12.1 million union members. But the AFL-CIO isn't just an organization with an office in DC for national unions to coordinate! In every state across the country the AFL-CIO has "State Federations" and "Central Labor Councils." These bodies help coordinate the labor movement at the state and local level. What does this mean for ATU Local 689? We're proud members of two central labor councils and two state federations. In Virginia, we're active in the Northern Virginia Labor Federation (a.k.a. NoVA Labor) which is a part of the Virginia AFL-CIO. In Maryland & DC, we're members of the Metro Washington Labor Council, which is a part of the Maryland & DC State Federation. Each one of these groups has meetings, conventions, Executive Boards and more! Some even have full time staff. All of these groups can sound like a lot but they're an essential part of the labor movement that keeps us all moving in the same direction! Our local labor councils help Local 689 fight for transit funding, help fight for laws requiring paid leave, and help run community outreach programs. Former Local 689 President Jackie Jeter was even the President of the Metro Washington Labor Council from 2016 to 2020!
HOW DO WE ENDORSE? One of the most important tasks for labor councils? They manage the collective endorsement process for the entire labor community. Many unions issue their own independent endorsements of candidates, but only the labor councils can claim to speak for "all of labor." The process can be challenging but rewarding as well!
Starting more than six months before any election, representatives, staff, and delegates of the different affiliates of the labor councils start to meet together and discuss the upcoming election. We talk about potential opportunities to flip seats for pro-union candidates, challenges we might face to our allies, and how the labor movement might be able to respond. These meetings take place in the "COPE Committee(s)" for each labor council. COPE stands for "Committee on Political Education" and they typically meet once per month at a minimum. They're a great opportunity to get more involved in politics and learn about local elected officials! As the dust begins to settle and candidates start to file for office, the COPE committees begin to create questionnaires that will ask candidates about their positions on almost every issue effecting AFL-CIO affiliates. There's an entire section of the questionnaire dedicated to transportation issues. We've always worked with our brothers and sisters in the Transportation sector (freight railroad, over the road truckers, delivery, etc.) to include questions about privatization, transit worker assaults, and public transit funding. Once answered by the candidates the questionnaires are typically over 10 pages of responses. After the labor council receives the completed questionnaires from each campaign, the COPE committee schedules in-person interviews with each candidate to get a better sense of their politics. For candidates running for re-election, union affiliates are given an opportunity to ask the elected officials questions about their past actions and votes. These meetings can be very intense, with some candidates even telling on their colleagues with background gossip and information about how politics actually works! After the interviews and questionnaires, the COPE Committees get together and discuss the results. The committee weighs the pros and cons of each candidate, they discuss their viability (i.e. likelihood of winning), their platforms, and the labor movement's ability to make an impact. The COPE Committee issues a recommendation to the Labor Council's Executive Board. That Board then issues a recommendation to the entire Labor Council where delegates have an opportunity to discuss and vote on every endorsement. Candidate endorsements require 2/3rds of affiliate delegates to vote in favor! This means that when labor says we're supporting a candidate, we're speaking with a united voice! But endorsing candidates is only the beginning, the real work is about actually getting our allies elected!
WHAT DOES AN ENDORSEMENT ACTUALLY MEAN? Labor's political power doesn't come from just announcing our support of a candidate! Our political power comes from our ability to mobilize union members as voters to get out and vote for pro-labor candidates! Candidates come to us and seek our support because they know that we're an important part of their path to victory. They know that they need our members and their families in order to win. In many places in this region union workers make up a huge percentage of the voters in a district! That's why the real work begins after endorsements are announced. We quickly get to work setting up phonebanks to call voters, send mailers to our members, and knock on doors to let voters know about upcoming elections. We know from repeated testing that these campaign efforts make an an impact. Voters are more likely to vote and support your preferred candidate when you reach out to them and ask for their support. Over the last few years, Local 689 was consistently one of the unions with the most volunteers for phone banking and door knocking. Politicians know this and it helps us hold them accountable to our issues.
WHAT ARE OUR ISSUES?
Our big political issue for 2022 is building support for expanded transit funding to help local transit recover from the pandemic. WMATA is facing a $400 million budget deficit in FY2024. That puts thousands of jobs at risk if we aren't able to find the money to close that gap. This is why we made transit funding a major focus of candidate questionnaires and our interviews. We also want to find, identify, and support candidates that are going to not only oppose future privatization but those that will help us "de-privatize" currently private sector transit operations. Many candidates have come out strongly against privatization due to the past work of ATU Local 689. We have successfully made it a "third rail" position for many candidates. Many people seeking office have even told us directly that they oppose privatization due to the number of strikes it has caused in our region. Additionally, we want to support candidates that promote policies that benefit our members. This is why flipping the Prince George's County Council is such a high priority of the labor council. We need affordable housing for our members, higher minimum wages, laws that make it easier to organize, and stronger schools. We know this is all possible, if we're organized and can get out to the polls!
HOW CAN I HELP SUPPORT ATU LOCAL 689'S POLITICAL WORK? Make a Plan to Vote - Our members vote at much higher rates than the general public but that number has been declining! Politicians only listen to those that show up! Follow the instructions in this newsletter and make a plan to vote and support pro-labor candidates! Volunteer - We know that we can only win some of these elections if we mobilize every labor voter in a district. That's only possible if we take the time to remind them of when the elections are, who labor is supporting, and how they can vote! We'll have canvassing/phone banking/volunteer opportunities almost every week between now and election day! Donate to COPE - COPE is one of the only ways that ATU can spend money on political work. Union dues can't be used for campaign donations! COPE is a voluntary donation that goes towards supporting pro-union, pro-transit candidates and opposing those that would attack our members! Your contribution is pooled with those of transit workers across the country to magnify our power!
Email bwivell@atu689.org if you have any questions about Local 689's political program or want to hear more about volunteer opportunities!
Donna Edwards for Maryland's 4th District
Donna on the picket line talking to Circulator workers!
Donna posing for a photo with our members ! 5/4/22
Anthony Brown announced that he was running for MD's Attorney General and giving up his seat in the House of Representatives. Donna Edwards used to hold that seat and always fought tooth and nail for working people. Soon after, she announced she was going to run for that open seat again. Donna has always been a champion for our issues. During the DC Circulator strike she took time off from campaigning to visit our members on the picket line and bring them food. She then made calls to every politician she knew in DC to tell them to apply pressure on the company! We didn't even have to invite her to the picket line, she just showed up and spent time talking with our members. We need more people like Donna Edwards in Congress! If you live in any of the western parts of Prince George's County you're likely in this district.
Vote Donna Edwards for Congress!
Tom Perez
for Maryland's Governor Tom Perez got his political start in our own backyard! He was first elected to the Montgomery County Council in 2002. Prior to that he worked as a civil rights prosecutor for the Department of Justice. But we all know Tom best for his history with organized labor! Governor Martin O'Malley appointed Tom as the Maryland Secretary of Labor. President Barack Obama then appointed Tom Perez to be the Secretary of Labor for the entire United States in 2013. Tom was then elected as the head of the entire Democratic Party in 2017. He's been a longtime friend of the labor movement and champion for workers! In his meetings with ATU he's promised to fight for a worker representative on the WMATA Board of Directors. With someone like Tom in charge of Maryland, we'd have an ally to support the future of public transit!
Vote Tom Perez for Governor of MD!
Tom at a meeting at the ATU HQ w/ Costa
Tom Perez shaking IP Costa's hand at ATU HQ
Brooke Lierman
for Maryland's Comptroller
Brooke at the founding of the Maryland Transit Caucus
Brooke at an ATU Local 689 Executive Board meeting!
Brooke Lierman has been a leader in the Maryland House of Delegates on transit issues for years. She represents parts of Baltimore City and has fought to bring back the canceled Red Line light rail project. She helped create the Maryland Transit Caucus, which is a legislative grouping of members of the General Assembly that fight to improve and expand public transit throughout the state. As Comptroller she would have oversight over all major state contracts, like public transit contracts! In this role she has told us how she would use it to help fight public private partnerships and hold those existing private contractors accountable. She even came to an Executive Board meeting for Local 689. She is a longtime ally of ATU Local 1300 in Baltimore. This is a major opportunity to make sure that we elect a pro-transit, pro-union advocate to serve as the state's next comptroller!
Vote Brooke Lierman for Comptroller!
Anthony Brown for Maryland's Attorney General
Anthony Brown has consistently shown up for transit workers during his time in Congress! We're sad to see him leave but know he'll be able to do incredible things as the next Attorney General for Maryland. He helped organize vaccine drives for transit workers and even got our members invited to tour the Greenbelt vaccine facility with him. Representative Brown even organized a press event to discuss transit funding issues at Largo Town Center Metro Station, where he let us tell our issues to the media directly. During Congressional hearings about the future of WMATA, he used his precious time to grill Paul Wiedefeld about what was being done to address worker's issues. Representative Brown is a champion for union workers and we know he'll do an incredible job as Attorney General! Make a plan to support his campaign this July!
Vote Anthony Brown for Attorney General!
Rep. Brown invited us to a tour of the CDC's Facility at Greenbelt!
Rep. Brown invited us to a press event on transit funding!
Angela Alsobrooks for Prince George's County Executive
Angela Alsobrooks is one of our greatest allies in office. Whenever Local 689 has an issue, no matter how big or small, we can immediately pick up the phone and ask for help from our County Executive! We've had multiple meetings with her at our Union Hall where she's told us about the role that public transit will play in the future of Prince George's county. She knows that our 8,000+ members and retirees in the county vote! County Executive Alsobrooks is pushing an ambitious agenda to develop more housing and retail development around Metro stations in the county. Not only will this help create more options for affordable housing, expand the county's commercial tax base, and create jobs but it will help increase the number of transit riders in this region! We know Local 689 and Alsobrooks can achieve great things working together! Let's move this county forward!
Vote for Alsobrooks for County Executive!
The Exec with Local 689 members at Hoyer Bull Roast
Alsobrooks meets with Ray at 2021 Evening w/ Labor
Marc Elrich for Montgomery County Executive
Elrich posing with union workers at a $15 min. wage rally!
Elrich in 1970 protesting for release of Black Panthers.
Marc Elrich was elected in 2018 after a tough primary. Now he faces down one of his opponents, a multimillionaire pharmaceutical executive, for the second time. His opponent is willing to spend millions of his own personal money to try to take out Marc. Why? Because many wealthy Montgomery County residents think he is too supportive of labor unions and working people. During the pandemic, Montgomery County was the model for keeping workers safe. Unionized government workers hadn't been given raises in years but Elrich worked with them to get hazard pay and raises. The County Council has even fought with him, saying the new collective bargaining agreement was too generous! But unions are re-endorsing Elrich because he stood with them when we needed him most. On July 19th, send a message that millionaires can't buy elections!
Vote for Elrich for County Executive!
MAKE A PLAN TO VOTE! PRO-WORKER PRO-UNION PRO-TRANSIT NO EXCEPTIONS!
Pro-Union County
AN MAKE A PL TO VOTE! ER PRO-WORK N PRO-UNIO SIT AN PRO-TR IONS! NO EXCEPT
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