Progressive Friends,
We hope that many of you have been vaccinated against the Coronavirus and are doing well. Because of the vaccinations, we may just get a glimmer of the light at the end of the Pandemic tunnel. But in the meantime, the Progressives will continue to be as active as we can, and do our meetings and discussions over Zoom.
Our March meeting will be held at 7 PM on March 8, 2021, once again by Zoom and co-sponsored by the Oakmont Democratic Club:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88381164596?pwd=SVhPSnlvbEc5RWptZDgvTnU3bjJzZz09
Ever since the Reagan Administration fired the Air Traffic Controllers who struck for better pay and working conditions, Unions have been in decline in the U.S. And we have seen the economic consequences of the lack of collective bargaining by workers and the lack of appropriate corporate regulation — The 659 Billionaire families in the US now own more than twice as much wealth as the bottom half of the entire US population (c. 165 Million people). But in the past few years, unions have been having a revival. this meeting will talk about the effect of one union, Unite Here, on the 2020 elections.
Labor and the 2020 Elections
UNITE HERE is a union representing 300,000 hotel, gaming, and food service workers in the U.S. and Canada. This presentation will focus on the role of the union’s ‘ground game’ in the recent elections and how they helped deliver key swing states, including Nevada, Arizona, and Pennsylvania. Fifteen hundred socially distanced union members knocked on three million doors and hundreds made 10 million phone calls to voters in these swing states. The presentations will be followed with a discussion.
For more background on the union’s precinct organizing, please see this article:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/10/what-the-democratic-party-can-learn-from-nevada-casino-workers-cooks-and-housekeepers/