Folks – It’s International Workers’ Day, and you’re going to get a lot of messages from politicians today chirping about their union support. 

Well let’s pour a cup of coffee and look over some receipts:

My opponent, the 23-year incumbent here in WA-02, talks a lot about “growing up in a union household” and his “strong support for unions.” But time and again he turns his back on workers when it counts.

Like that time the Machinists Union rescinded their endorsement of Rick Larsen because he turned his back on them during a hotly contested contract negotiation with one of his BIGGEST donors, Boeing, saying this:

“It is my assessment that Boeing needs to control its costs so it can continue to lead in an increasingly competitive environment.”

Rick Larsen, Dec 13, 2013

There’s also the time More Perfect Union reached out to Rick Larsen to get his position on the union drive at Starbucks – a Washington-founded multinational corporation with a market valuation of $109 billion with over $25 billion in profits last year ALONE, whose average worker pay is $13.49 an hour.

Larsen’s response? He had none.

Or how about 2022 when Larsen (joined by 210 other Democrats and 79 Republicans) voted on H.J.R. 100 to stop rail workers from going on strike over unfair wages and poor safety practices. Then two months later a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio – unleashing an environmental calamity that will impact residents there for YEARS.

Do I need to mention that Norfolk Southern is ALSO one of Larsen’s biggest donors?

Finally, Rick Larsen is firmly on the record as being entirely against single payer healthcare. Setting aside the fact that Rick gets hundreds of thousands of dollars from the health insurance industry, the simple fact is that policies like Medicare for All strengthen the leverage unions have at the negotiating table. Opposing universal healthcare means handing power over to strikebreakers like John Deere, who in 2021 threatened to cut striking workers off from their health insurance to force them back to work.

Solidarity is a verb, folks, and I’ve got my own receipts.

As a public school teacher, I proudly served as an elected union leader at the local and state level for years. In my first year in the Representative Assembly of the Washington Education Association, I wrote, submitted, and passed a resolution rejecting the idea that corporations are people.

While I’m no longer a teacher or a member of the WEA, I’ve never stopped showing up for workers.

While Rick Larsen was dodging questions about a certain coffee shop chain, I joined a group of labor organizers touring Starbucks locations in WA-02 to let workers know – if they decided to unionize – their community had their back.

A few weeks later, the first store to unionize in our district was right here in my hometown of Marysville.

I’ve walked the picket line with the Carpenter’s Union, Farm Workers, Seattle Cement workers and too many more to count over the years.

I’ve never crossed a picket line in my life, and when I serve in Congress I will *always* help hold the line for working people.

I’ve pledged to donate 30% of my post-tax congressional salary to strike funds, and every labor organizer I’ve worked with in Washington State knows they can take that promise to the bank.

It’s the same reason I won’t ever take a dime from corporate PACs or lobbyists – because I refuse to deal with strikebreakers and union-busters.

A lot of politicians are sending their cookie-cutter pro-union messages today. Don’t fall for it. Ask for receipts, and you’ll know who really has your back when you need it most.

Never forget: Labor is entitled to ALL it creates. And you can’t stand with labor when you’re on the payroll of the bosses.

Now let’s take this seat in November and make history!

Solidarity forever,

Jason Call