FULL article:
http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/08/30/%e2%80%98working-families-are-fed-up-and-ready-to-make-a-change%e2%80%99/As Labor Day—the unofficial opening of the election campaign season—approaches, America’s working families are struggling hard to make ends meet. Instead of the benefits of the economic recovery that President Bush is touting, the average family’s pocketbook is stretched to the limit, and voters are fed up enough to make a sweeping change in Congress.
To make sure these economic issues stay in the forefront of the 2006 elections and that workers’ voices are heard, the AFL-CIO is launching its largest-ever off-year political mobilization. During a press conference in Washington, D.C., today, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said:
This Labor Day, it appears that a “perfect storm” is gathering that may well sweep away Republican control of the Congress this fall. It is a storm fueled by three developments:
First, profound economic trends have strained working families to the breaking point—workers are not sharing in the wealth they helped create and our nation’s economic recovery has not been a recovery for workers at all.
Second, as you might expect, new polling shows that most voters are painfully aware of these problems and pocketbook issues will be top voting issues this fall.
And finally, the AFL-CIO is making the largest effort in our history in an off-year election, driving home these pocketbook issues. We will play the largest role we’ve ever played in electing the candidates we’ve endorsed in many of the pivotal competitive races for the House and Senate.
Workers are taking some hard hits in this economy. Workers such as Daniel Seybert, 47, a member of the USW International Union in Newton Falls, Ohio. Seybert, who earns $43,000 a year after 28 years in a tire factory, tells The Wall Street Journal:
We have been regressing, with higher gas prices and I am paying a lot
more in county and state property taxes. When I built my home in 1999, I paid $1,200 in property taxes. Now they are $2,400. That’s just money out of pocket.
In a video clip shown during the press conference, Meagan Jeronimo, a working mother, says:
I’m struggling more than I ever have before. I go to the gas pump and try to figure out how to fill my gas tank. I go to the grocery store and try to figure out how to buy my groceries.
It’s not just low-income people that are struggling with these issues. Many, many middle income workers are struggling with these issues. It’s getting harder out there and no one is listening to us.
Jeronimo is not alone. Real median earnings for men working full-time and year-round were lower in 2005 than in 1973. In inflation-adjusted 2005 dollars, a typical full-time worker in 1973 earned $42,573. Thirty-six years later, this figure has fallen to $41,386.
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