AFGE Local 644 President Weyrauch Meets AFGE Endorsed Candidate Barack Obama

Our family budgets are getting tighter every day, and times are getting tighter for many of us. We are facing increased prices, and wages are not keeping up. Our health care has become more
expensive, the value of our homes is falling and our retirement security is at risk.

We have a chance to turn this around in November. Barack Obama will make sure the American economy works for people like us–people who work hard to ut food on the table, fill our cars with gas, heat our home and send our kids to school.

We need an economy that works for all of us. This is why our union is supporting Barack Obama for president and Joe Biden for vice president. This is why I am personally supporting Obama and Biden and asking you and your family to do the same.

Obama will fight for us, and he will be a strong voice for us on working family issues. He knows that unions keep the middle class strong. He co-sponsored and voted for the Employee Free Choice At in the U.S. Senate and has pledged to sign it as president to protect workers from harassment when they try to form unions and bargain.

Obama supports extending unemployment benefits, funding children’s health insurance and providing help with heating our homes this winter. He supported a program to help homeowners refinance mortgages, and he voted to eliminate tax breaks for companies that export jobs. Obama believes our trade agreements must have enforceable labor and environmental protections, and he is concerned that everyone has access to secure, high-quality heath care.
Once elected, Obama will be ready to move forward with an energy program that not only moves our country away from dependence on foreign oil but also begins to develop a new economy of jobs based on building our country’s energy future and independence.

Barack Obama has a vision for the future–a future that puts working people front and center. By choosing Joe Biden as his running mate, Obama has shown that his priorities lie with working families. Biden grew up in a working class Pennsylvania family, and he has been a tireless supporter of working families as a senator from Delaware. He will make a strong vice president and great partner in Obama’s efforts to fight for the workers of
America.

Obama represents a change in the direction of our country. Working families cannot survive another administration of failed economic policies, rising debt and the shifting of wealth to corporations at the cost of workers.

How you vote is a personal decision , but I hope you and your family will join me in supporting Barack Obama for president

Speech at Secretary’s 2008 Awards Ceremony - Philadelphia

Good morning, Madam Secretary, Distinguished guests, Regional Executive Committee, Award Honorees and the best damm federal workers in the country, the Department of Labor’s Philadelphia Region’s employees.

We are gathered once again to honor those employees, who have achieved and excelled in the past year, and I am here, as usual, to celebrate those of you who do the daily work of the Department of Labor. The Department of Labor works because of the work of the employees of the Department of Labor!

Secretary Chao it is so fitting that you came here in the last year of your tenure, saving the best for last. I am sure that when you leave here today you will take with you a much better understanding of what great employees you have had the honor to lead for the past 8 years.

There are far fewer of us then when you took over the reins of the Department but the great service has continued. Those fewer employees reached deep down in their souls and did what was necessary each day to accomplish the mission. The Department of Labor was the first federal agency to achieve Green on each and every one of the President’s Initiatives and maintain the high quality of service to the mission of promoting the welfare of the American workers. The Department of Labor works because of the work of the employees of the Department of Labor!

That dedication to the mission does not go unnoticed; I bring you greetings from the leadership of the AFL-CIO who asked me to convey their thanks and praise for the fine service to the American worker. You promoted the welfare of the workers; providing safeguards for their pay and pensions’, protected their safety and health and provided training to both the younger workers starting out as well as the older worker displaced by outsourcing. The Department of Labor works because of the work of the employees of the Department of Labor!

My fellow employees, I remind you that though downsized, outsourced and overworked you achieved every initiative, made every goal and exceeded the highest level of service to our mission.

So never let those dour devotees of dread; darkness; despair and doom get you down. You were downsized, demoralized and disrespected, but you responded by being eager, enthusiastic, efficient and have exceeded.

You were outsourced; obstructed; offended and overworked, but you prepared; perspired; prospered and prevailed. You were beset; bedeviled; belittled and betrayed but you reacted with calmness; clarity; candor; character and class.

No matter the Administration, the Policy or the Politics you have always fulfilled the Mission and promoted the welfare of the American worker. The Department of Labor works because of the work of the employees of the Department of Labor!

As today as we celebrate the excellent work of the Honorees, we also celebrate all of your work. When you leave the hall today, walk a little taller, hold your head a little higher because of you the Department of Labor works.

The motto of the National Council of Field Labor Locals is the mantra for the Department of Labor, “Where America Works We’re Working for You!”

The American Worker is the best in the world and you are the best of the American Worker.

Thank God for America! Thank God for the American Worker and God Bless you for the work you do for the American Worker and America.

Thank you!

President's Column - Could Unsafe Imports Be An Act Of Terrorism?

By
Jim Weyrauch, President AFGE Local 644

I don’t usually ascribe to conspiracy theories but can’t help but wonder, in this age of heightened security and paranoia, why the government doesn’t look more closely at the tainted food, unsafe toys and other dangerous cargos crossing our borders. The Department of Homelands Security and all of the federal /state and local agencies charged with the protection of our country seem to be obsessed with searching for alleged terrorist from under every bush no matter how they trample on civil liberties but don’t seem to be concerned with cargo that comes through our ports and across our borders everyday.

It is been reported that Customs only inspects 5% of cargo that comes through our ports and usually permits cargo addressed to large companies such as Wal-Mart to go through without inspection. Most of that cargo comes from suspect nations, such as China and other countries on Bush’s Axis of Evil It is the same with food and drugs, very little inspection by both Customs and the Federal Drug Agency or the Consumer Product Safety Commission or Food Inspections. With this lax inspection protocol one could put forth the premise that terrorists are already in the country could have WMDS shipped here with little or no expectation of detection.

If the definition of Terrorism is causing harm to American citizens and destroying our infrastructure doesn’t the import of tainted and unsafe food and drugs, toys and other products containing high levels of lead meet the same criteria?

Millions of toys containing lead and other toxic materials pass through our ports uninspected, unchecked and even protected by those whose responsibility it is to stop tainted materials. This is not the hard working inspectors, customs agents or enforcement agents at the ports and borders who daily stand on the wall, willing to give their all to protect our country. Those decisions and protocols are made by the political appointees and agencies heads that salute and don’t challenge the bypass of the laws their agency is mandated to enforce. These decisions are to see that an undue burden is not placed on commerce rather than safeguarding our health and welfare.

Millions of pounds of tainted and unsafe food are passed through our borders unchecked every year. Every so often, at a higher rate than usual in 2007, either citizens or pets become ill or die. When there is a public outcry, the government agency charged with the responsibility mandates a recall, warning the public to be vigilant and moves on. The Corporation that imported the product has a Press Conference, recalls the product and assures us that stiffer inspection measures will be enforced but never addresses why the stiff and vigilant measures already in place didn’t work. Neither the company that imported the product nor the company abroad that provided the product and violated the “stiff inspection measures” already in place are held responsible. The Agency head and the Corporation CEO look glum, vowing stronger inspections and that it will not occur again and on to business as usual.

Back in Washington, Congress debates the issues, arguing over who is tougher on enforcement , and promising to enact stricter laws and bigger budgets for inspection and then funds the building of higher fences on the Mexican border with more electronic surveillance to catch the Illegal Aliens and potential Terrorists. A joint Press conference is held by the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Directors of the other agencies standing at the podium promising much more security while cajoling people to ever vigilant and report any strange behavior of their neighbors, especially if they speak with an accent or wear odd clothing.

If it is the duty of the federal, state and local governments to protect the public, then they should do it thoroughly. All of the cargo should be inspected, no matter how long it takes. If tainted food or drugs or unsafe toys or other products are found, confiscate and charge the companies with whatever sanctions are in the law. The American companies who do not provide the due diligence required should be punished. These corporations deserve no breaks to pawn off unsafe products to the public, just because it only happens infrequently. We need to realize that there are laws other than the Patriotic Act, phone and internet snooping that protect us from harm.

Maybe instead of looking through the dumpsters and garbage cans for evidence, we could start looking through the cargo bays of ships for the hazardous products crossing our borders and coming through our ports.