ATU endorses Bernie:
Media Contact: David Roscow
Tel: 301-431-7100 x254 Cell: 202-487-4990
Silver Spring, MD – Pointing to the urgent
need for a candidate who fights for working families; who stands up to
Wall Street and the billionaire class, who will break with politics as
usual, the Amalgamated Transit Union General Executive Board voted
Monday to endorse Senator Bernie Sanders for President.
“The sincerity of Bernie Sanders and his long
standing fidelity to the issues that are so important to working people
are what convinced us that standing with Bernie is standing with the 99%
of America that has been left out of the mainstream public debate,
cheated out of our jobs and denied the true meaning of the American
dream,” said ATU International President Larry Hanley in making the
announcement.
“His unabashed support of civil rights, public
services, free tuition at public colleges, increases in Social Security
and the minimum wage, make him an ideal candidate. But the Labor
Movement owes Senator Sanders so much for his consistent opposition to
right wing programs and his championing of first-rate healthcare for all
– which is already the global standard,” Hanley continued.
ATU will be recommending that ATU members vote
for Bernie in the primaries and caucuses that remain. The union also
plans to mobilize members across the country in support of Sanders’
campaign
“We reject the idea that these vital programs
are unattainable and resent the notion that we as a country can afford
unlimited and unquestioned expenses for war, but must withstand the Tea
Party Test on every investment in our own people. The attempt to
belittle what so many of us believe in and what Senator Sanders has
brought to the national stage is antithetical to the progressive history
of the Democratic Party.”
Hanley recalled the brave words of Robert F. Kennedy in South Africa in 1966 in announcing ATU’s support of Senator Sanders:
“‘There is discrimination in this
world, and slavery and slaughter and starvation. Governments repress
their people; millions are trapped in poverty while the nation grows
rich and wealth is lavished on armaments everywhere. These are differing
evils, but they are the common works of man. They reflect the
imperfection of human justice, the inadequacy of human compassion, our
lack of sensibility towards the suffering of our fellows. But we can
perhaps remember – even if only for a time – that those who live with us
are our brothers; that they seek – as we do – nothing but the chance to
live out their lives in purpose and happiness, winning what
satisfaction and fulfillment they can.’
“Today we remember those words and are proud to
stand with the candidate who was arrested fighting for civil rights, had
the judgment and courage to vote against a senseless war, stood up to
the drug companies, the banks and Wall Street and remained loyal to the
common struggling worker. In the spirit of Bobby Kennedy we ask our
members to stand with Bernie Sanders.”
ATU is the largest labor organization
representing transportation workers in United States and Canada. With
more than 192,000 members in 253 local unions spread across 47 states
and nine provinces, including 3,000 workers at Greyhound Lines, Inc.,
ATU members work as bus drivers, light rail operators, maintenance and
clerical personnel and other transit and municipal employees.
“This is no ordinary time in U.S. history and our nation is crying
out for a leader who owes nothing to the corporate interests responsible
for undermining the American middle class,” says Hanley.
“Our
executive board recognizes what’s at stake in this election and have
made the bold decision of endorsing Bernie Sanders for President. Bernie
is right for working people and right for America."
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