In the House!

"Right to work for less" will not be the death of the labor movement, but members not knowing the value of union membership could be."
So said Jan at the recent UHP convention (University health Professionals, the fine men and women of  the University of Connecticut Health Center)
Day in and day out, Jan reminds us that the strength of the union is in our members and their engagement and ownership of their union and their community.
That is why it is so important to understand the value of the union.  Only by standing together can we advocate for ourselves and our communities.

This past Tuesday we stood together in Hartford and we were successful.  Joshua Hall, the VP of the Hartford Federation of Teachers, was elected Connecticut State Representative!
Joshua is a democrat.  In fact, he was state party treasurer until he resigned to be able to run.  He sought the Democratic nomination and was denied, even though he make it clear that we would run on another line if he had to.

Apparently, they didn't believe him.

Apparently they were wrong.

Joshua sought the endorsement of the Connecticut Working Families Party, the Hartford Federation of Teachers, and AFT Connecticut.  When he received all those endorsements, other unions came to his side and endorsed him.  Union sisters and brothers canvassed the North End knocking on doors and making house calls.

Three reasons drove our decision to back him (Any one alone would have been reason enough):
We believe in Joshua.
We believe in Connecticut Working Families Party.
We believe in the Labor Movement.

For too long Labor in Connecticut has felt that the two major political parties have looked at us and said, "Where they gonna go, we're the only game in town."
On Tuesday we told them where we will go. (Perhaps we told them where to go?)
We will go to the people, to the movement, to our roots.

We took a chance.  Failure would have strengthened the argument that the two parties were correct. But we were taking a chance on Josh, on WFP, and on our union sisters and brothers.
My friend Jesse from the CTU says that sometimes you have to fight a battle because it's the right thing to do, even if you're not sure what the outcome will be.
Jan is correct. Our strength is in our collective action.

Josh was sworn in on Friday.  It was a privilege to be there.