AFL-CIO Official Rallies Workers

Workers face a stark choice in the November elections between two competing visions for the country, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler told over 50 Granite Staters prior to kicking off Sunday’s “Walk for Working Families” on the Seacoast. The canvasses knocked on doors in Stratham, Hampton, North Hampton and Rye for President Obama, Maggie Hassan, and State Senate candidate Bev Hollingworth.

“Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Ovide Lamontagne, Frank Guinta and others just like them have a vision that will bring us right to work for less, off-shored jobs, mass unemployment and foreclosures—all to create massive wealth for corporate CEOs and the 1 percent and a hard life for the rest of us,” Secretary-Treasurer Shuler said to the crowd. “President Barack Obama and other champions of working families like Maggie Hassan and Carol Shea Porter share our values and our vision of workers’ rights, broadly shared prosperity and opportunity for all.”

Secretary-Treasurer Shuler highlighted the critical role that volunteers have played in educating and mobilizing fellow union members. The New Hampshire AFL-CIO has reached nearly 27,000 union voters through phone banks and canvasses since August. “No one else has the strength on the ground we do—no one else mobilizes like we do,” she said.

“As a woman and a union member running for office, I’m proud to be walking alongside Liz today,” said Kelly Torosian, a member of IBEW 2320 who is running for the New Hampshire House in Auburn, Chester and Sandown. “We simply can’t afford another two years of attacks on workers in the Statehouse.”

“This November working families have the opportunity to elect a governor and Legislature who will stop the partisan attacks on workers and focus on making our economy stronger,” said Kevin Cash, Executive Vice President of the New Hampshire AFL-CIO. “As someone who’s known Liz since she entered the labor movement, I’ve never seen anyone with such a strong passion for helping working people.”

Elizabeth Shuler is the current secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, one of three top-level officers for the federation. The first ever woman elected to the position in 2009, Shuler also holds the distinction of being the youngest officer ever to sit on the federation's Executive Council. Coming from Portland, Oregon, Shuler has been at the forefront of progressive labor initiatives like green job programs and the fight for workers' rights for many years, starting as an organizer at her local union.

Submitted by Nora Frederickson, spokesperson, AFL-CIO