President of the Western Virginia Labor Federation, Rick Howard, is a labor leader widely respected across Virginia for his activism and committed leadership. He serves as President of the Virginia State Council of Machinists, sits on the Virginia AFL-CIO Executive Council and was his Local's President for almost 28 years. Both Rick's father and grandfather worked on the railroad where Rick retired this year after 40 years of working there.
Rick explains that during Labor 2008, "you have people who want to work as hard and believe as much as we have in Roanoke and the surrounding area including the Shenandoah and New River Valley. We had something to believe in this time and the effort was worth every bit of it. It really paid off."
On mobilizing for the Employee Free Choice Act, Rick explains, we basically have to do what we've done during the last election and every year. We need to get the tide changed. It's simple: everyone ought to have a chance to get representation if they want it and that's all this bill is about."
The unions basically built the country. That's the bottom line; the unions brought people the weekend, they never had weekends before. The only reason we had a voice at the railroad was because we had a union.
At the Labor Federation meetings in Roanoke, Rick and his brothers and sisters are writing their members of Congress. "These letters mean a lot. There's nothing like hearing from you personally and that's what it takes."
I'd urge everyone to make that phone call, send that email, and send that fax; We need to remind them that, we need to get the Employee Free Choice Act passed and give people a chance.
We need to remember what big labor
is. It's each and every one of us: every individual counts, and we're
all on a team.
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