Dear Brothers and Sisters:          

The kids are back in school, which means summer is all but over. Working families are still under attack in Ohio. Contract negotiations continue and UAW 1714 has some new members.          

I would first like to welcome our new members to Lordstown Complex West. We have a working family here and strive to make sure our members receive the justice they deserve. Many if not all of the temps will be gone, but my hope is that many if not all of you will be back sooner than later. I would like to encourage this membership to welcome our new members as they are now part of our working family. 

         

I know our Shop Committee has been working diligently trying to bring this membership a contract we can all be proud of. They are staying focused on bringing more work into this plant so we can all have a future here. At the National level, things have been VERY quiet. I do expect to be in Detroit, MI, early this month for a role out of our National Agreement. We will then have some informational meetings at our Local to go over the proposed UAW/GM National Agreement. Yes, we will need to vote on it!          

Are you registered to vote in the State of Ohio? If not, PLEASE do so. We are under attack from a Governor who is more like a dictator than leader. Aside from giving away the millions of dollars coming to Ohio for our infrastructure, he wants to lease or sell one of Ohio’s great assets, the Ohio Turnpike. NO tax dollars go to the turnpike, in fact it helps subsidize taxpayers. We only need to look at what has happened in Indiana to know this is a bad deal.

‘Dictator’ Kasich is also the architect of Senate Bill 5, which will limit collective bargaining rights for many unionized workers. This bill also hurts small business employees, non-union employees, the general public and the middle class. We’re all in one boat and when the boat sinks, we all go down together. We know this, and that is why we helped collect the nearly 1.3 million signatures on petitions to get this issue on the November ballot, so we, the people, have our voice. We need every member, all of us, to get our friends and family, church members and social groups, everyone we know, to come out and vote NO on Issue 2. A NO vote on Issue 2 WILL REPEAL SB 5.          

WE CANNOT STOP HERE. House Bill 194 is a voter suppression bill. We will soon be circulating petitions to get this on the ballot as well, and this is why:

1.SEVERELY RESTRICTS VOTING RIGHTS & OPPORTUNITIES.

 

•                     Dramatically reduces In-Person Early Voting from 35 days to 12 (10 weekdays, 2 half-Saturdays). •                     Prohibits In-Person Early Voting during the busiest three (3) days of early voting (Saturday/Sunday/Monday). •                    Cuts mail-in voting from 35 to 21 days making it harder to receive and return a ballot in time. •                     Implements more aggressive registration purging without adequate assurances that qualified voters are not being removed from the rolls.

 

2. NEEDLESSLY DISQUALIFIES ELIGIBLE VOTES.

•                     Stricter Requirements:   Requires that votes be thrown out if every single field - including full social security number - is not completed on a provisional or absentee ballot envelope. •                     Throwing Out Ballots:   Throws out ballots where voter intent is clear, such as when a voter fills in the oval by a candidate’s name and also writes in the same name. (There were 12,207 of these votes in 2008).•                    No Solution to Poll Worker Errors:   Instead of finding a solution to determining poll worker errors in provisional voting, the bill presumes voter error instead of error by trained poll workers. Poll worker errors will continue to cause ballots to be thrown out.•                     Creates more provisional voting:   Increases the number of provisional ballots less likely to be properly counted, by eliminating the requirement that poll workers will be required to direct voters to their correct precinct and by prohibiting poll workers from helping voters complete forms.

 

3. ELIMINATES LOCAL CONTROL & REQUIRES “ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL” APPROACH

 

•                     Prohibits setting up satellite locations for early voting unless 3 of 4 members approve.

 

•                     Prohibits setting early vote hours that make sense for the county, even though some counties have fewer than 15,000 residents and others have more than 1,000,000 residents.

As you can see, this attack on working families will continue in the State of Ohio until we can get rid of ‘Dictator’ Kasich. Please stay active or get active, in the political climate. We CAN make a difference. Our voices WILL be heard. If we sit on the sidelines then we are just as much to blame. I will not tell my kids and grandkids that it does not matter, that the system is so messed up that we can’t do anything about it. NO! I’m going to tell them that I did make a difference; that every vote counts, and that the politicians need to be held accountable. We have the power; it is in us as a united force.          

If we work together and all move in the same direction, we will win the justice that our forefathers fought so hard for. In just a short period of mankind’s lifetime, we have gone from workers having no rights, to workers having many rights. The problem is all those rights that workers fought so hard to gain over the last 100 years are being taken away from us. We cannot let that happen. We will stand together for all workers! Solidarity forever! Believe it!

Dave Green

 

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