Published 14 Jun, 2016
Brothers and Sisters:
The International Administrative Committee is proud to announce TWU’s endorsement of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for President. As Election 2016 nears, we hope each and every one of you will consider this endorsement and the great privilege that comes with voting.
We hear from many of our members that you don’t like to be told for whom to cast your ballot. That’s fair. But there is simply too much at stake in this particular election for us to sit quietly on the sidelines any longer. The differences between the two remaining candidates are staggering, and we must spend the next five months doing everything we can to ensure that our movement will survive this election.
The best way to do that is to honor your responsibility as a union member and a citizen and get educated on the facts. Our next president will decide who sits on the Supreme Court, a body whose decisions have decades’ long impacts on the lives of working people: your healthcare, your retirement, and your ability to organize and bargain collectively. Do we want someone appointing justices who will do right by the middle class in this country, or do we want someone whose appointments will protect the ruling elite? Donald Trump is a fraud with a long history of selling out working people to protect his bottom line. Hillary Clinton has come a long way on her journey of fighting for us.
For most of us, what we’re really after is a seat at the table, and a chance to do right by our families, or perhaps, an opportunity for our children to do even better than we have. Brothers and sisters, we can tell you with absolute certainty that Donald Trump does not share that vision with you. He does not want to protect your pension, or make it harder for your employer to take advantage of you by declaring bankruptcy, or make it easier for you to organize on the job. He may appeal to your frustrations with government or your nostalgia for a time where our country looked or behaved differently, but he is not the answer to your problems. In fact, he is the source of many of them. He is the establishment. He is the corporate elite that is to blame for so much of the economic imbalance that exists in our country today. A vote for Donald Trump is irresponsible and dangerous.
We trust that Hillary Clinton will make good on her promises to working people. We know that she hears us. We know that she’s committed to investing in America’s infrastructure, to protecting retirement benefits, raising the minimum wage, and championing unions. She has committed, in her first 100 days, to propose the biggest investment in American infrastructure since we built the Interstate Highway System, and has said she’ll fight with us side by side to get the contracts we deserve with America’s biggest airlines. She’s walked our picket lines, she’s done her homework, and she’s learned a great deal about what it means to be a union member—to get up and go to work every day and fight to earn a decent living, and to stand up for what you believe in. The choice this November is simple: expand access to economic stability and a pathway to the middle class, protect working people’s voices on the job, and appoint justices to the Supreme Court who will look out for everyday Americans, not just the wealthy one percent.
These issues—and the people who get to decide them—matter. It’s time to connect all the dots and make your voice heard. Because we all want a voice: at home, on the job, and of course, in the way our government works. We all want a say in making sure our elected representatives act in the best interests of working people. Join us this November, brothers and sisters, and be heard!
United Invincible,
The TWU International Administrative Committee