John,
I hope you are enjoying a well-earned day off today. As you probably know, Labor Day is a holiday to honor and recognize the American labor movement and its achievements.
Weekends, paid-time-off, health care, eight-hour workdays, and many more tangible, everyday benefits were made possible by strikes and unionizing of workers generations before us.
While this is a day to celebrate the contributions of past generations, it’s also a day to look forward and take stock of what still needs to be done.
Union workers across our state continue to be exploited and denied dignity. Earlier this spring, I visited workers in Janesville that are currently fighting for their livelihoods because a private equity firm decided to move 200 jobs from Janesville to Mexico.
What’s happening in Janesville has and continues to occur across our state. We need elected officials that will side with workers every time.
That’s why I’m proudly pro-worker and pro-union. John, I even wrote a book about successfully standing up to Wall Street and saving a paper mill.
That’s why I’m incredibly proud to have Union endorsements that include:
- Green Bay Area Fire Fighters I.A.F.F. Local 141
- Appleton Fire Fighters I.A.F.F. Local 257
- Grand Chute Fire Fighters I.A.F.F. Local 3655
- OPCMIA Local 599 (Operative Plasterers' and Cement Masons' International Association)
- Dave Branson, Local labor leader
- Kilah Engelke, Secretary Treasurer, Milwaukee Building-Construction Trades Council
- Jon Geenen, former United Steelworkers International Vice-President
- Tim Jacobson, Chief steward, UAW Local 578
- John Matthews, Former Executive Director of Madison Teachers Inc.
- Nick Liesch, Sheet Metal Workers Local 18, business representative (retired), Past President of NorthEast Wisconsin Building and Construction Trades Council
- Ryan Steffel, President, IAFF Local 1594 (Kaukauna)
- Joe Resch, Vice-President, IAFF Local 1594 (Kaukauna)
On Labor Day, I want to let you know where I stand;
that will always be on the side of hard-working Wisconsinites.
Happy Labor Day,
Tom Nelson
