WIN Week In Review October 10-12, 2008

By Doug Cunningham

Most Americans are feeling the economic squeeze of higher prices and stagnating or falling wages. Add a bank meltdown ot that and you have families living in real distress. Professor Michael Zweig of the Center for Study of Working Class Life at the State University of New York the official poverty rate doesn’t begin to tell the real story.

[Zweig]: “According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the only measure of economic distress that they have is the poverty level. That’s what they count. That’s what they measure. And by official government poverty standards the poverty rate is around 12.2 percent, 12.3 percent. What we have found is that if you look at a broader understanding of economic distress, it’s around 21 percent of the households in the United States. Almost double.”

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With the economy in meltdown and a track record of Republican-led disasters from Iraq to Katrina Barack Obama has the momentum heading into the final weeks of the campaign. One of the unknown elements on election day, though, will be how big a factor lingering racism may play in the voting. In a speech earlier this year AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Rich Trumka directly addressed the race issue that could still cost Obama critical working class votes in key states.

[Trumka]: “ We can't tap dance around the fact that there are a lot of folks out there they just can’t get past this idea that there’s something wrong with voting for a black man. Well, those of us who know better can’t afford to sit silently and look the other way while it's happening."

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Labor’s effort for Obama is paying off in a southern red state. Polls show Obama leading in Virginia, a state that hasn’t voted Democratic since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Dan Duncan of the northern Virginia Central Labor Council is excited about Obama's lead in Virginia.

[Duncan]: “Fantastic shape. That is something that we've been drooling at. And we still think we're dreaming. We've got so many good folks volunteering her from all their unions. For a right to work for less state, like Virginia is, our union members get this. They know what it means and they're out here helping. I think three simple words say it - jobs, jobs, jobs.”

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Tom Wrobleski, President of International Association of Machinists District 751 in Seattle says strikers remain resolute as they enjoy widespread support in their fight for a good contract.

[Wrobleski]: “Nearly every union out here is doing whatever they can do to support us, whether it's coming and puttin' time in on the picket line, bringing by coffee, doughnuts, a bag of groceries or financial support. They are there with us, they support us. They know that your fight is what makes the labor community strong and they will benefit from your fight."

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