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POLITICAL INFORMATION

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HEED THE CALL TO GET INVOLVED!!

A letter from your Business Manager, William Brooks:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

   With the result of the last election cycle and the change of control of the State House, our survival is at stake. We need you, more than ever, to weigh the recommendations from the Laborers' District Council and understand the ramifications to your ability to make a living. We need your participation in the political side of business and your help to talk to elected officials when legislation is introduced that changes will adversely affect your unemployment compensation, prevailing wage and right to work. Your response will be greatly appreciated by the officers and members of the Laborers' District Council of Western Pennsylvania. Please go to the "Who are my legislators" link at the bottom of this page, click on the link, then enter your address and they will appear. Phone calls and e-mails will be greatly appreciated on behalf of working men and women in Pennsylvania. Republican Majority Leader Mike Turzai has been one of several Republican legislators leading these vicious attacks on the working men and women. His area includes McCandless Township, Marshall Township, Franklin Park, and Pine-Richland in Allegheny County. Please contact him personally to let him know you will not stand for this attack on your family or your union brothers and sisters.

Fraternally yours,

William Brooks

Business Manager

Laborers' Local #373

REPUBLICAN TURZAI GOING AFTER PREVAILING WAGE

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

   As you must know, the political climate is decidedly against working people. Much like Wisconsin and Ohio, our state has politicians that want to balance the budget on the backs of working people. Mike Turzai the Pennsylvania State House Representative for the 28th district has consistently co-sponsored legislation that would damage or eliminate the Prevailing Wage Law. His claim that the law is antiquated and costly to taxpayers is completely false. Studies show no significant difference in cost per foot when Prevailing Wage is enforced. Studies also show that in states where Prevailing Wage has been eliminated apprenticeship programs suffer and on the job injuries increase. Representative Turzai is relentless on this issue and others, including revamping Unemployment Compensation, again on the back of working people. Workers Compensation is another important law protecting working people and another law that Representative Turzai would like to modify making it more employer friendly. He is equally brutal with legislation affecting workers represented by other AFL-CIO unions.

  There are many important issues to consider when voting for the person representing your interest from school board to President of the United States. Your ability to make a decent living, support your family, have health care and a decent retirement vehicle should be a priority when you cast your vote.

  Fortunately, working families have good friends in both the Democratic and Republican parties. Representative Turzai is not a friend of working families and obviously does not realize that we are taxpaying Pennsylvania consumers. We are looking for a viable candidate to run against Representative Turzai in the 2012 Republican primary. If you know of anyone that is interested in becoming involved in state politics with a regard for the working families of our Commonwealth we would be happy to meet and discuss supporting them.

Fraternally yours,

William Brooks

Business Manager

Laborers' Local #373

 

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NOTE: THE FOLLOWING IS A LISTING OF ANTI-PREVAILING WAGE LAW CO-SPONSORS.

	NAME	PARTY/DISTRICT	COUNTY
1.	RONALD MARSICO	REPUBLICAN/105	DAUPHIN
2.	RYAN AUMENT	REPUBLICAN/41	LANCASTER
3.	JOHN BEAR	REPUBLICAN/97	LANCASTER
4.	KERRY BENNINGHOFF	REPUBLICAN/171	CENTRE/MIFFLIN
5.	STEPHEN BLOOM	REPUBLICAN/199	CUMBERLAND
6.	SCOTT BOYD	REPUBLICAN/43	LANCASTER
7.	MARTIN CAUSER	REPUBLICAN/67	CAMERON/MCKEAN/POTTER
8.	PAUL CLYMER	REPUBLICAN/145	BUCKS
9.	JIM COX	REPUBLICAN/129	BERKS
10.	TOM CREIGHTON	REPUBLICAN/37	LANCASTER
11.	BRYAN CUTLER	REPUBLICAN/100	LANCASTER
12.	SHERYL DELOZIER	REPUBLICAN/88	CUMBERLAND
13.	GORDON DELINGER	REPUBLICAN/99	LANCASTER
14.	GARTH EVERETT	REPUBLICAN/84	LYCOMING
15.	MIKE FLECK	REPUBLICAN/81	BLAIR/HUNTINGTON/MIFFLIN
16.	KEITH GILLESPIE	REPUBLICAN/47	YORK
17.	MAUREE GINGRICH	REPUBLICAN/101	LEBANON
18.	GLEN GRELL	REPUBLICAN/87	CUMBERLAND
19	SETH GROVE	REPUBLICAN/196	YORK
20.	MARK GILLEN	REPUBLICAN/128	BERKS
21.	C. ADAM HARRIS	REPUBLICAN/82	JUNIATA/MIFFLIN/SNYDER
22.	SUSAN HELM	REPUBLICAN/104	DAUPHIN
23.	TIM HENNESSEY	REPUBLICAN/26	CHESTER
24.	DAVID HICKERNELL	REPUBLICAN/98	DAUPHIN/LANCASTER
25.	ROB KAUFMANN	REPUBLICAN/89	CUMBERLAND/FRANKLIN
26.	FRED KELLER	REPUBLICAN/85	SNYDER/UNION
27.	MARK KELLER	REPUBLICAN/86	FRANKLIN/PERRY
28.	TIMOTHY KRIEGER	REPUBLICAN/57	WESTMORELAND
29.	JOHN LAWRENCE	REPUBLICAN/13	CHESTER
30.	DARYL METCALFE	REPUBLICAN/12	BUTLER
31.	DAVID MILLARD	REPUBLICAN/109	COLUMBIANA
32.	RONALD MILLER	REPUBLICAN/93	YORK
33.	DUANE MILNE	REPUBLICAN/167	CHESTER
34.	DAN MOUL	REPUBLICAN/91	ADAMS/FRANKLIN
35.	DONNA OBERLANDER	REPUBLICAN/63	ARMSTRONG/CLARION
36.	SCOTT PERRY	REPUBLICAN/92	CUMBERLAND/YORK
37.	TINA PICKETT	REPUBLICAN/110	BRADFORD/SULLIVAN/SUSQUEHANNA
38.	MARGUERITE QUINN	REPUBLICAN/143	BUCKS
39.	KATHY RAPP	REPUBLICAN/65	FOREST/MCKEAN/WARREN
40.	BRAD ROAE	REPUBLICAN/6	CRAWFORD
41.	TODD ROCK	REPUBLICAN/90	FRANKLIN
42.	CHRIS ROSS	REPUBLICAN/158	CHESTER
43.	RICK SACCONE	REPUBLICAN/39	ALLEGHENY/WASHINGTON
44.	STANLEY SAYLOR	REPUBLICAN/94	YORK
45.	MARIO SCAVELLO	REPUBLICAN/176	MONROE
46.	CURT SCHRODER	REPUBLICAN/155	CHESTER
47.	JUSTIN SIMMONS	REPUBLICAN/131	LEHIGH/NORTHAMPTON
48.	RICHARD STEVENSON	REPUBLICAN/8	BUTLER/MERCER
49.	ROSEMARIE SWANGER	REPUBLICAN/102	LEBANON
50.	WILL TALLMAN	REPUBLICAN/193	ADAMS/YORK
51.	DOUGLAS REICHLEY	REPUBLICAN/134	BERK/LEHIGH
52.	MARCY TOEPEL	REPUBLICAN/147	MONTGOMERY
53.	MIKE TURZAI	REPUBLICAN/28	ALLEGHENY
54.	RANDY VULAKOVICH	REPUBLICAN/30	ALLEGHENY
55.	KATHARINE WATSON	REPUBLICAN/144	BUCKS

SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION THREATENED!!!

   Your action is needed on a bill that will make it much more difficult for school districts to undertake needed school construction. As part of the budget deal, a bill is pending that would eliminate the current construction exemption from the law that requires a referendum to approve a school tax increase.

   The tax payer protection act was passed 8 years ago when the Legislature enacted the state gambling law allowing slots. As part of that arrangement, some of the slots revenue went to offset local property taxes. The tax payer protection act made it harder for school districts to raise taxes by requiring a "backend referendum" before any tax increase could be implemented. But certain exemptions were included in the law so that districts didn't need to get voter approval to address increasing costs beyond the districts' control. The construction exemption isn't even a full exemption as it only discounts 60% of the construction costs from triggering the referendum.

   House Bill 1326 and Senate Bill 911 remove all exemptions in the law. Please contact your State Senator and House of Representatives member and ask them to oppose these bills unless the construction amendment is preserved. If this legislation passes, it will greatly reduce school construction in Pennsylvania.

MY LEGISLATORS

PROPOSED REPUBLICAN HIGHWAY BILL TO DESTROY COUNTLESS JOBS!!

 Congress is considering two versions of the Highway Bill: a House Republican plan that would destroy 630,000 jobs in the first year alone, and a Senate plan that creates and protects jobs. The Highway Bill is the single largest job-creating legislation in the nation, and an investment that highlights our nation's ability to do big things.

Tell Congress now not to lock in failure by passing the House Republican Highway Bill.

 The House Republican Bill cuts investment by a third, would destroy jobs for years to come, cripple our ability to compete in the global economy and lead to deterioration of our transportation systems. The U.S. Senate plan would maintain the current level of highway investment and strengthen a foundation for growth as the economy improves.

 In the first of three special teleconference calls aimed at mobilizing members to fight this attack on jobs, more than 1,000 LiUNA members last week committed to help their fellow members deliver the message to Congress that the House Republican Highway Bill kills jobs. Join your brothers and sisters in this effort now.

Help stop this latest attack on jobs, send an email to your representatives in Congress today.

 LiUNA General President Terry O'Sullivan took the message to Congress Thursday, testifying before a U.S. Senate committee on job-killing cuts in highway and bridge work proposed by House GOP leaders and the need to pass a Senate plan that will continue to invest in our transportation system and create good jobs for the men and women who build America.

 Watch General President Terry O'Sullivan's testimony right now, then send an email to your member of Congress, telling them we need to create jobs and rebuild our roads and bridges and create real assets for taxpayers, instead of putting more than a half-million men and women out of work.

Thank you for making a difference.

Sincerely,

LiUNA Action Network

TELL CONGRESSS TO STOP SENDING JOBS OVERSEAS

   OUR ECONOMY IS IN THE GUTTER. Millions of Americans who are ready, willing and able to work are unemployed and underemployed. But instead of creating jobs, a bipartisan majority of lawmakers in Congress and the White House are busy trying to ram through three unbearably unfair, job-offshoring trade deals. One of them would reward Columbia - the most deadly country in the world for trade unionists.

   IT'S TIME TO RAISE HELL. When we desperately need to promote job growth here at home, these trade deals must not be enacted.

Tell Congress: Stop offshoring jobs, Start rebuilding America. Vote "NO" on all three unfair trade agreements.

   THESE THREE TRADE DEALS, WITH COLUMBIA, KOREA, AND PANAMA, ARE JUST MORE BAD MEDICINE FOR OUR SICK ECONOMY.

   We need to be creating jobs, not passing agreements that will offshore more jobs and leave more communities behind.

Make your voice heard. Tell your lawmakers to reject more offshored jobs and more communities left behind.

   Our leaders must change how we do business, and put their energy into tackling big problems like unfair trade with China, respect for workers' rights, currency manipulation and America's massive infrastructure deficit.

   WHAT ARE OUR LEADERS THINKING? HOW CAN THEY SUPPURT THESE FLAWED AGREEEMENTS?

• IN COLUMBIA, ONE TRADE UNIONIST IS MURDERED ALMOST EVERY WEEK AND ALMOST NONE OF THE MURDERERS ARE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE. I doubt very much Congress and the White House would be passing a trade deal with a country where a CEO was murdered every week.
• THE KOREA AGREEMENT IS THE LARGEST OFF-SHORING DEAL OF ITS KIND SINCE NAFTA. If enacted, it likely will displace 159,000 U.S. jobs, mostly in manufacturing. And its glaring loopholes would allow unscrupulous businesses to import illegally labeled goods from China and possibly even from sweatshops in North Korea, potentially without any tariffs at all.
• THE PANAMA AGREEEMENT HAS MANY OF THE PROBLEMS OF THE OTHER TWO DEALS, LIKE DEREGULATIING BIG BANKS AND LETTING FOREIGN INVESTORS BYPASS U.S. HEALTH, SAFETY, LABOR AND ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS. Panama is also a tax haven: a place where tax-dodging, money-laundering millionaires and billionaires hide their money.

   Past trade deals like NAFTA have been a miserable failure for working people, and these new deals follow in NAFTA's footsteps. Working people need to make our voices heard, and we need to fight hard.

   PLEASE TAKE ACTION RIGHT AWAY. Tell Congress: Stop offshoring jobs. Start rebuilding America. Vote "NO" on all three unfair trade agreements.

In Solidarity,

Richard L. Trumka

President, AFL-CIO

P.S. Some politicians think these trade agreements are good for America as long as Congress provides help for displaced workers through a program called Trade Adjustment Assistance. While we support helping workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own, help in the short term and a weaker America in the long term is unacceptable.

PROTECT YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO VOTE!

A message from Rep. Anthony M. DeLuca, D-32nd District, Allegheny County

Movement is afoot in the PA General Assembly to make it harder for many voters to cast their vote. House Bill 934 is a Republican-sponsored bill which would require every voter to provide unexpired, valid government photo identification in order to vote in each election.

I am against this prejudicial voter ID bill.

We all want to prevent fraud no matter where it is but the only thing this bill would prevent is a lot of good people, especially our senior citizens and disabled persons, from exercising their right to vote.

This bill is an unnecessary burden which would result in spending millions of dollars implementing this program and strip residents of their right to vote.

Making everyone show a photo ID will disfranchise young people, senior citizens, inner-city residents, minorities and naturalized citizens because they are less likely to have photo ID. It also will cost the state nearly $10 million at the same time the Republicans are cutting funding for education, eliminating programs that are intended to preserve our environment and slashing programs for health care for our working class constituents.

PENNSYLVANIA SHOULD BE MAKING IT EASIER FOR RESIDENTS TO VOTE, NOT MAKING IT HARDER.

To find out more about this bill, and to take action on it, please visit the following link:      VOTING RIGHTS

THANKS TO TIM MURPHY!

A "letter to the Editor" from your Business Manager, William Brooks:

Dear Sir or Madam:

   I would like to commend Representative Tim Murphy for his recent action to put destructive partisan politics aside and cast a vote in favor of protecting community standards when it comes to federal construction projects. Representative Murphy was one of 27 Congressional Republicans who helped ensure quality, on-time and on-budget construction results by voting to eliminate a misguided provision to deny the federal government from using all available market-based tools, such as project labor agreements.

   Representative Murphy provides a ray of hope and optimism that there are at least some members of U.S. Congress who are willing to put political motivations aside, instead choosing to respond to the demands of American workers and taxpayers to create jobs and rectify our dismal economic situation. Put simply, partisan politics has never paid a mortgage or put food on anyone's table.

Thank goodness Tim Murphy understands that.

Sincerely,

William J. Brooks

Business Manager of Local 373

President of Pittsburgh Building Trades

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SHAME ON SENATOR TOOMEY!!!

On May 25, Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) Tea Party-inspired budget didn’t even come close to passing the Senate. It was voted down 40–57.

But 40 senators, including yours, voted for Rep. Ryan’s budget that would replace Medicare’s guaranteed health care funding for seniors with underfunded vouchers for private insurance—forcing a typical 65-year-old to spend $6,359 more a year in out-of-pocket costs by 2022.

Forty senators, including yours, voted to make $4.3 trillion in drastic cuts—hitting everything from education and food aid for children to job training and Medicaid.

And 40 senators, including yours, voted for $4.2 trillion in tax cuts, which go disproportionately to corporations and the rich.

Your senator needs to be held accountable for this outrage. As Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said before voting “no” that night, “The Republican plan to kill Medicare is a plan to make the rich richer and the sick sicker.”

Let Sen. Toomey know last night’s vote to end Medicare as we know it is inexcusable—and working people won’t stand for it.

Politicians like Sen. Toomey clearly will work actively to further enrich the rich at any cost to working families, at a time when inequality already stands at historic levels.

There are no excuses for this vote. And no acceptable explanation. We all need to make sure voters know where Sen. Toomey stands. That starts right now, with letting your senator know this vote will have serious consequences.

Act now: Let your senator know you’ll hold Medicare-scrapping politicians accountable.

May 25th's vote sent a loud and clear message to the American public that, according to Republican leaders in the House and Senate, sacrifice is for the weak, while the powerful and well-connected get tax cuts.

Politicians who forget that the majority of voters work for a living do so at their own political peril. We’ll make sure voters know the truth—and they’ll make the point at the ballot box, just as voters in New York’s 26th congressional district did Tuesday.

Act now: Let Sen. Toomey know yesterday’s vote won’t be forgotten by working people.

Thanks for making it clear this shameful vote won’t go unnoticed.

In Solidarity,

Manny Herrmann
Online Mobilization Coordinator, AFL-CIO

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