We'll let this op-ed piece which appears on the Long Island Business News Web site speak for itself.


Durso: A fresh start for America and LI

by John R. Durso

Published: November 20th, 2008

In an unlikely quest that began 20 months ago in Iowa, Sen. Barack Obama’s transforming election as our 44th president offers America a fresh start.

Despite a deteriorating economy and two wars, on Long Island and across our nation the mood is ebullient. Yes, labor unions are ecstatic.

Labor’s outreach effort for Obama touched 13 million households in 24 battleground states, helping unleash a record-breaking turnout of Hispanics, Asians, blacks and young people – an electorate as diverse as the labor movement itself.

Fresh leadership in Washington, D.C., has sparked a sense of hope, of moving forward. On Election Day, Suffolk County passed a budget that funded needed services and doesn’t raise property taxes. Long Island Realtors are cautiously upbeat, telling us we’re doing OK so far compared to other parts of the country.

Polls show that Americans are demanding long-term, structural solutions to the deep economic problems we face. A Time magazine survey found that 82 percent favor government-funded, public work projects to jump-start the economy. That’s just what Obama has in mind.

The nation’s unemployment rate soared to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent in October as another 240,000 jobs were lost. Obama will make grants to state and local governments that have been hard hit by revenue losses from the economic downturn – Mayor Bloomberg’s new budget cuts 3,000 jobs in New York City. On Long Island, a federal stimulus package will energize projects already underway and open the door for new opportunities.

Creating jobs and rebuilding America’s middle class is what Obama’s presidential campaign was all about and voters gave him the most lopsided election victory for a Democrat since Lyndon Johnson whomped Barry Goldwater in 1964.

With that mandate, he can pursue the aggressive agenda America needs. And that includes the Employee Free Choice Act. Workers know that a union is their ticket to the middle class. The EFCA will give them the freedom to make their own decision about whether and how to form a union. There is no better economic stimulus – unions allow more people to bargain for better wages, which helps rebuild our middle class and create a prosperous economy.

Democrats didn’t have enough votes in the Senate last year to pass the EFCA, but the election changed all that. No need to tiptoe around the issue this time. Six newly elected senators strongly support the bill that President-elect Obama co-sponsored.

The legislation is overdue to raise the standard of living for workers, an essential ingredient of America’s fresh start.

John R. Durso is president of RWDSU Local 338 and international vice president of the United Food & Commercial Workers. He is also president of the Long Island Federation of Labor.