Most Local 400-Recommended Candidates Win
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Keeping Up the Fight here are no guarantees in life. friend who helped enact Big Box legisla- class: Bills making it harder for workers You can work tirelessly, fight tion when he chaired the Fairfax County to gain union representation and stacking tenaciously, battle fiercely and Board of Supervisors, narrowly won re- the deck even more in favor of manage- T still lose. We saw that national- election in a district designed to be a safe ment. Draconian cuts in unemployment ly on Tuesday, November 2nd. Republican seat. And in the primaries, we compensation, veterans’ benefits, student Actually, there is one won a host of hotly com- aid, food and nutrition programs, and a guarantee—if you sit on petitive races, including host of other services working families the sidelines, you’ll lose. We face those of Washington, D.C. need. Measures that reward corporations Because your adver- Mayor-elect Vincent Gray for taking jobs overseas and driving down saries will have the field an assault and Prince George’s wages and cutting benefits here at home. to themselves. Especially County Executive-elect Not to mention efforts to repeal or under- now that the Supreme on working Rushern Baker. We even mine the health security provided by the Court’s Citizens United helped oust four incum- Affordable Care Act. ruling allows corpora- families. bent Maryland state sena- So we must fight back. Hard. Even tions to spend unlimited tors who had voted though most of these efforts will be amounts of money to elect candidates against working families, replacing them stopped by a gridlocked Senate or who serve at their beck and call. with strong allies. President Obama’s veto pen, we must So I am extremely proud of all that As a result, we will have many friends recapture the narrative, expose the Local 400 members did to help elect our in public office locally. That’s especially assault on working families that’s at the recommended candidates—leaders who important with our contracts at Kroger- heart of the new House majority’s agen- stand on the side of working families. We West Virginia, Giant, Safeway, Shoppers da, and explain why a growing union gave it our all. and Kaiser expiring over the next two membership is the only way to save the In fact, we won most of our top priority years. middle class from extinction. races. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) But nationally, we face a House of This is our cause. We will keep on easily won re-election over his predeces- Representatives whose new majority was fighting, no matter what setbacks hap- sor, the anti-worker Bob Ehrlich (R). West bought lock, stock and barrel for $167 mil- pen, because nothing matters more than Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin (D) was elected lion by Big Business—that’s the amount our mission of helping working families to the late Sen. Robert Byrd’s seat, helping corporations and their front groups spent improve their lives. to keep the U.S. Senate in pro-working on the election. With their lobbyists writ- Best Wishes for the Holiday Season! family hands. In Northern Virginia, Rep. ing legislation and issuing orders, we can Tom McNutt, President Gerry Connolly (D), a longtime Local 400 expect an all-out assault on the middle International Vice President 2 UNION LEADER DECEMBER 2010-JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011 UNITED FOOD & COMMERCIAL WORKERS LOCAL 400 Thomas P. McNutt PRESIDENT Mark P. Federici SECRETARY-TREASURER DECEMBER 2010-JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011 Sue Gonzalez RECORDER EXECUTIVE BOARD Mike Boyle F E A T U R E S Jacqueline Bradley Terry Dixon Lisa Gillespie Nelson Graham Big Business Buys Control of U.S. House Joanne Grimaldi 4 Mikki Harris Most Local 400-Recommended Candidates Win, Buck Trend James Hepner Michele Hepner Phyllis Jackson Health Care Reform Under Attack Neil Jacobs 6 Cuccinelli, Others Do Bidding of Insurance Companies James M. Jarboe Mary Laflin Calvin McGuire European Companies Exploit Tony Perez 10 Ken Pinkard Weak U.S. Labor Laws Odis Price U.S. Ranks Below 41 Nations in Workers’ Rights Jerry Rexroad W. Christian Sauter Carolyn Shebora Coalition Demands Walmart Change Vivian Siguoin 11 Larry Southern or Stay out of D.C. Linda Sykes Workers, Residents, Small Businesspeople Join Forces D. Rex Trabue Mary Vines Carol Wiszynski EDITOR Thomas P. McNutt C O V E R S T O R Y ASSOCIATE EDITOR Mark P. Federici CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER Holiday Time Is Union Time Bill Burke 12 Shop at Local 400-Staffed Stores DESIGN AND LAYOUT Evans Design EDITORIAL CONSULTANT Bruce Kozarsky A L S O I N S I D E The Union Leader is published by the United Food & Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 400. Office of Publication: Kelly Press Inc., 1701 Cabin Branch Rd., Landover, Md. 20785. Editorial Office: Metro 400 8 Faces of Local 400 18 All in the Family Building, 4301 Garden City Dr., Landover, Md. 20785. Main Office: (800) 638-0800. Subscriptions to mem- bers only. WEB SITES: 16 Stewards Spotlight 20 Local 400 Retirees www.ufcw400.org 18 Financial Report BC Bargaining Update DECEMBER 2010-JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011 UNION LEADER 3 • LOCAL 400 POLITICS & LEGISLATIVE WATCH • LOCAL 400 POLITICS & Big BusinessBuys Control of Most Local 400-Recommended Candidates Win, Buck National Trend The 2010 mid-term elections were a “What’s remarkable is how well work- to raise the economic standing of the landslide for Republicans nationally, as ing families did on a playing field so state’s working families. Throughout they gained more than 60 seats to take heavily tilted against us,” McNutt said. Maryland, nearly all Local 400-recom- control of the U.S. House and picked up “Local 400 and the labor movement over- mended candidates won. Longtime Sen. six Senate seats to reduce the Democrats’ all put in an all-out effort to Barbara Mikulski (D) was easi- majority. However, within Local 400’s support candidates who stand ly re-elected. In addition, jurisdiction, Democrats held their own with us. Our turnout efforts Democrats gained two seats in and our members helped propel most rec- helped keep the U.S. Senate in the Maryland state Senate to ommended candidates to victory. the hands of pro-working family hold a 35-12 seat margin and The election was marked by unprece- forces and kept many of our lost just six seats in the House dented corporate spending to defeat pro- allies from losing fiercely con- of Delegates, where they retain worker candidates. After the Supreme tested elections in the House. a 98-43 seat margin. Court’s Citizens United ruling allowed Local 400 members’ hard work In West Virginia, Gov. Joe Maryland Governor corporations to spend unlimited amounts helped most of our recommend- Martin O’Malley (D) Manchin (D) defeated multi- on political action, business-backed ed candidates win. We should millionaire extremist John organizations laid down a whopping $167 be proud of what we accom- Raese (R) for the U.S. Senate million to influence the election outcome. plished in this challenging year. seat previously held by the late Three of every four dollars spent on the “We should also keep some Robert Byrd, winning a race in 2010 elections came from corporations, perspective,” McNutt said. “No which he once trailed by a com- according to Open Secrets. Yet the public matter how hard you try, you manding 53 percent to 43 per- was in the dark about this because corpo- can’t win every election, and in cent margin. rations funneled their political money our lifelong mission of empow- In Virginia, Local 400 played through front groups and congressional ering working families to a decisive role in helping Rep. Senator Joe Republicans blocked legislation that improve their lives, you’re going Manchin (D-W.Va.) Gerry Connolly (D) win re-elec- would have required public disclosure of to suffer some setbacks along tion by a razor-thin 920-vote these contributions. Voters had no way to the way. We just have to dust margin in a district whose know what businesses were behind the ourselves off and get back on boundaries had been drawn by many attack ads that ran and what their the battlefield, keeping in mind the GOP to elect Republicans. true motivations were. It was even possi- that we still have allies in the However, Local 400-recom- ble that foreign corporations funneled White House and much of the mended candidates Tom money into the elections through the U.S. Senate, and that our task Perriello (D) and Rick Boucher Chamber of Commerce. remains the same: to fight hard- (D) narrowly lost their battles “What we saw on November 2nd was er than ever to meet the needs for re-election. a hostile corporate takeover of the U.S. of working families during Representative “Our members devoted count- House,” said Local 400 President Tom these troubled economic times.” Gerry Connolly less hours to supporting our rec- (D-Va.) McNutt. “Big business exploited voter ommended candidates,” McNutt anger over high unemployment, despite Local Victories said, “and because of their tireless efforts, the fact that it was caused by Wall In Maryland, Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) we can count on strong allies in the Street’s greed and recklessness, in order was expected to have a tough rematch Maryland governor’s mansion, our state to elect candidates who will do what it with former Gov. Robert Ehrlich (R), but legislatures, and many key positions in wants and defeat candidates who fight won handily by a 56 percent to 42 percent Congress. While we will face many obsta- for working families.