The Massachusetts AFL-CIO and the Merrimack Valley Central Labor Council are cosponsoring yet another MA-05 candidates’ forum, this one focusing on labor and working family issues, this coming Monday, June 4, at the Little Theater at the Lowell High School, 50 Father Morrissette Blvd, Lowell. The doors open at 6:30 PM and the forum will start at 7:00. All announced candidates were invited, and some have confirmed as of the press release: City Councilor Eileen Donoghue, Representative James Eldridge, Representative Barry Finegold, Representative James Miceli and Niki Tsongas.
I’m hoping to attend, and the event is open to the public.
Please share widely!
There can be no debate on Labor without debating the Immigration Bill that is currently being rammed through the Senate by our own Sen. Kennedy and GOP Sen Kyl (McCain was co-sponsor but backed off). The labor unions, especially the building and construction trades union are alerting their members across the country to oppose this bill. I posted earlier on the Guest Worker provision…a compromise with the devil that hurts BOTH American workers AND immigrant workers,
but it did not get front-paged on this blog.
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Go to http://www.bctd.org for information on how this bill actually undercuts both American workers and immigrant workers.
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Thsi bill has something to hate for everyone. Unfortunately, Sen. Kennedy has gotten in too deep on the compromises and the Senate wants to show they passed something…anything…but better to kill this flawed and unfair bill and start over than to pass this cut and paste sunstitute for good legislation.
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Many Senators and Congressmen owe their seats to organized labor…and certainly the Democrats owe their majorities to trades unions that poured their sweat, money and support into battleground states in 06…and in many states made the deciding difference for the Dems.
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How soon they forget.
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and then read the frontpage article BCTD Mobilizes Grassroots Effort to Defeat Senate Immigration Bill with great interest.
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The article is empty. There’s no information there. I’d like to know exactly why BCTD is opposing the bill — where the flaws in the bill that render it worth opposition lie. It’s not obvious to me, and so I’m left scratching my head.
The key to effectiveness in congress is seniority which brings choice committee assignments.
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Without seniority you are just picking crumbs from the carpet dropped by leadership while competing for a voice and $$$ with your fellow members.
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If you go into congress without an agenda that does not match the party leadship, you get plaaced on a back burner.
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What is your current age and how many years do you plan to serve MA-05 if elected?
It’s not that I disagree; rather, it seems to me that if you’ve got some vision and are willing to work at it, you could accomplish really great things in any committee. The question is: what committees will you be vying for? Are you interested in foreign or domestic, appropriations or revenue, environmental or business, etc? These don’t have to be diametric choices, I’m just spitting out different interests for which any given committee may or may not have a significant impact.