Sheet Metal Workers International Endorse Kerry

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Kerry Wins Endorsement of Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association
Union Represents More Than 150,000 Members

February  02,  2004

For Immediate Release
Washington, DC –
John Kerry today received the endorsement of the Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association (SMWIA) from General President Michael Sullivan.  Sullivan announced that SMWIA volunteers are planning to work phone banks, distribute literature and canvas door-to-door for John Kerry across the country.

“John Kerry is a proven leader who will restore the economic prosperity and peace our great nation deserves and needs,” said General President Michael Sullivan. “For too many years the working families of this country have suffered under the Bush administration.  Bush has failed us in generating the jobs we depend on, the affordable healthcare we require and in providing a secure future for our children.  It is time for this president, and his party of irresponsibility, to surrender the White House.  We are proud to stand at John Kerry’s side and fight for his victory.”

The Sheet Metal Workers' International Association (SMWIA) represents 150,000 skilled craftspersons in the unionized sheet metal industry throughout the United States and Canada with almost 150 affiliated local unions in the United States.  Its members are concentrated along the Eastern and Western seaboards, Texas, Wisconsin and throughout the Midwest.

“The Bush Administration has cost our country three million jobs in only four years and that price is too high. America cannot afford to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans on the backs of the middle-class,” said John Kerry.  “I am proud to have the support of the Sheet Metal Workers in this fight to get America back on track and working again for the people.  I know the American people want an America that is strong, that has a healthy economy, and that leaves no one behind.  That’s what I’m fighting for.”

Kerry has fought for the rights of workers to organize in his home state of Massachusetts, including SEIU workers in Boston and UFCW and CWA workers throughout the state. He has stood up again and again to beat back Republican efforts to gut OSHA, weaken worker safety rules and cut funds from worker training and employment programs.

John Kerry’s plan to provide Americans with the only real economic security – good jobs – will:

* Raise the Minimum Wage – John Kerry helped lead the fight to pass the last minimum wage increase in 1997 and is a strong supporter of legislation to increase the minimum wage and index it to inflation. 
* Expand Access to Quality Affordable Health Care – John Kerry has introduced a plan to make health care more affordable and provide coverage for every American. 
* Protect Wages and Workplace Rights – John Kerry opposes efforts to allow employers to avoid paying overtime and create company organized and controlled employee organizations aimed at replacing unions under the TEAM Act.
* Enforce Equal Pay – John Kerry supports pay equity legislation that would remedy economic injustice.
* Extend and Improve Unemployment Insurance – John Kerry believes that unemployment insurance should be reformed to cover more people, to provide sufficient benefits to people between jobs, and help laid off workers gain the workforce training skills that they need.
* Protect Worker Safety – John Kerry strongly supports implementation of a mandatory ergonomics safeguards to improve workplace safety and have opposed legislative efforts to block these safeguards. 
* Provide Strong Whistleblower Protection – John Kerry wrote and led the fight to pass a law that prohibits airlines from firing or otherwise discriminating against employees who provide information to the federal government about possible airline safety violations.
* Protect Workers Right to Organize a Union – A strong supporter of the right to organize, John Kerry believes that the card check and neutrality system is the most fair and equitable way for employees to establish their desire to form a union and for employers to recognize the union and begin negotiations. 
* Make It Easier To Balance Work And Family – John Kerry cosponsored the original Family and Medical Leave Act, and believes that we should not only protect Family and Medical Leave but should expand it to help more Americans balance the needs between work and family.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

1. Huge construction trade- (ductwork in buildings)

a great endorsement for Kerry.