By Dennis R. Pierce
BLET National President
CLEVELAND, November 7 — Shortly before 3 o’clock Eastern Time this morning the National Division received the following email message from a member:
“Thank you so much for your strong effort, in the promotion of unionism, and my very strong effort to support you, and your values. Tonight, I am ever so proud to belong, and to be, a proud member of the BLET!”
This same sentiment is shared by tens of millions of union members today, along with a feeling of relief.
To President Obama I offer my congratulations on a victory that overcame many odds, not the least of which were a recovery from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, which has been tentative, and an onslaught of obscene amounts of corporate and billionaire campaign contributions that were unprecedented in this nation’s history. Mr. President, you earned your reelection and you deserve a second term.
To the BLET membership, I want to offer my most heartfelt thanks … for paying attention, for taking the time to understand the issues that impact our future, and for becoming involved. Thank you to those BLET officers, leaders and activists who worked to educate our members on the BLET issues in this election and mobilized them to turn out the vote.
To the members of our great Brotherhood I give the biggest thanks of all. Thank you for taking the time to get into the details of the threat to our retirement system posed by the Romney/Ryan Budget. Thank you for forcing your representatives to address this issue. And thank you for understanding the existential threat posed by extremist candidates and then acting to repel that threat.
To the leadership of the Teamsters: Thank you President Hoffa and General Secretary-Treasurer Hall for your tireless efforts, especially here in Ohio, to protect not only the interests of our fellow Teamsters, but the interests of all BLET members and working people throughout the country.
The American electorate faced two stark choices in this campaign. One embraced a belief that strengthening the economy starts with building the middle class and expanding outward. The other proposed an economy built on continuing and expanding the special benefits enjoyed by the 1%, from which growth would somehow magically trickle down to everyone else. And now the choice has been made.
Mr. President, your acceptance speech acknowledged that — if I can borrow a theme from your campaign — you didn’t build this victory by yourself. It was built with the historic and heroic efforts of officers, leaders, activists and members of the BLET, the IBT and the entire American labor movement as a whole, along with progressive forces and non-union voters who understand that unions are the cornerstone for middle class prosperity.
None of us should expect the next four years to be easy. The people who refused to accept your election in 2008 are not likely to accept your reelection today. So, the struggle must continue.
When President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office during the depths of the Great Depression, labor leaders provided him with their plans for economic recovery. These measures included creating a level playing field for workers and their unions, implementing infrastructure programs to stimulate the economy and build the middle class, and ensuring a dignified and stable retirement for all Americans, measures that would become the New Deal. FDR told these labor leaders “I agree with you, I want do to it, now make me do it.”
Mr. President, there is much unfinished work to be done to improve our economic recovery. At the same time, the country needs to deal with debt and deficit issues to secure our long-term economic strength. But we cannot address these challenges in an unbalanced way, or in a way that undermines the social contract the New Deal created. The BLET will begin addressing some of these issues later this month, as we set our 2013 legislative agenda.
We know, Mr. President, that you agree with us about what needs to be done to fully restore our nation’s economic preeminence and we know you want to do it. The BLET will remain involved, and will continue to mobilize on the issues of importance to locomotive engineers, trainmen and all workers, and we will make you do what is necessary to restore the American Dream for working and middle class citizens.
We will struggle every day to make sure that Washington does right by BLET members and all workers, Mr. President, because we’re proud to be American and proud to be Union.