Date Posted

As this year’s political season is fully underway with two candidates facing off until Election Day, Local 3’s voter registration drive continues to press forward. The importance of this Election Day cannot be overstated. Like many elections of the past, we face a fundamental choice between two starkly different candidates who represent very different interests at the core of their campaigns.
This election is about understanding, supporting, and standing up for working peoples’ issues‰ÛÓeconomic issues like combating Right-to-Work (for less), raising the minimum wage, protecting prevailing wage, supporting our Union sisters and brothers in the public sector, and growing‰ÛÓnot restricting‰ÛÓeveryone’s right to join a union and bargain collectively. We know that the best way to grow the middle-class is through good union jobs and we need to spread that message every day.
The stakes of this election are high: the continued growth of the country’s economy; a chance to implement policies that encourage a shared prosperity that raises the wellbeing of all working people and closes the income inequality gap; the potential to appoint a number of Supreme Court Justices over the next eight years; to create policies that combat climate change while creating good, union jobs in the green economy and to ensure that working peoples’ rights are not stripped away but in fact expanded.
With all of this in mind, Local 3 continues with its voter registration drive for 2016. With the help of the Local 3 IBEW 3DYC RENEW Committee and the various clubs and divisions of Local 3, we continue to appeal to all of Local 3’s unregistered members. The goal is to grow our politically active ranks to ensure we can raise our collective voice as working people on Election Day, and to guarantee that the labor movement will continue to grow over the next four years.
You may be contacted by a Local 3 sister or brother, either on the phone or a knock on the door. Local 3 volunteers will provide you with a voter registration card that is quick and simple to fill out. No one will tell you which political party to support or for whom to vote. While Local 3 encourages you to keep you and your family’s economic interests in mind when you vote, choosing who you will vote for is a personal and serious decision. So, if you receive a voter registration card in the mail, a phone call, or a knock on the door from a Local 3 sister or brother, be sure to take a few brief minutes to fill out the form and send it right back. The strength of Local 3 derives from being a politically active and engaged group of working men and women who know how to stand up and make sure our collective voice is heard on Election Day.
So we urge every member of Local 3 to pay attention this election season, to understand the importance of this decision, to be registered to vote and to stand up collectively for all working people. The significance of this Election Day cannot be overstated.