Second annual clay shoot
slated Oct. 27 in Gervais
The Union Sports-
men’s Alliance’s (USA)
second annual sporting
clay shoot will be held
Saturday, Oct. 27, at
Mitchell’s Clay Target
Sports, 6181 Concomly
Rd., Gervais.
Awards will be given
to the highest scoring teams and top in-
dividual shooter. First time shooters are
welcome and encouraged to partici-
pate.
Registration is from 8 to 9 a.m., with
shooting starting at 9:30 a.m. Registra-
tion includes shotgun shells (12- or 20-
gauge only) and clay targets, lunch and
beverages, along with
awards, door prizes and
premium raffle item
drawings.
Shooters and sponsors
are still needed. Various
levels of sponsorship are
available. All proceeds
from the event will help
support the USA’s mission to unite the
union community to expand and im-
prove hunting and fishing access and
wildlife habitat throughout North
America.
Contact Tim Bindl at TimB@union-
sportsmen.org or Heather Tazelaar at
615-831-6779 for more information.
Have a Great Labor Day Weekend!
For all your
hard work
and dedication,
Happy Labor Day to all!
President SHANNON A. WALKER (IAM/W 536)
Vice President JUDY KUSCHEL (WFSE 313)
Secretary/Treasurer ROY JENNINGS (ATU 757)
Trustees
MARK RAUCHENSTEIN (PTE 17)
JOHN MURPHY (BCTGM 364)
KARLY EDWARDS (UNITE HERE 9)
Executive Board
JENNY GRAY (BCTGM 114)
JOHN ORR (WSN)
ROBEN WHITE (IUPAT 10)
MIKE TEEFY (AFGE )
Meetings are held every fourth Thursday starting at 6 p.m. (November and
December are the second Thursday) at the ILWU Local 4 Hall, 1205 Ingalls
Vancouver, Washington.
PAGE 22
Who’s On Our Side?
By Tom Chamberlain
S
he makes my morning coffee. He
teaches her kid math. You fix his
car. And I fight the fire at your neigh-
bor’s house, stopping it before your
house is damaged.
We’ve never met before, but
through the work we all do we are
closely connected.
It’s been five years since the re-
cession began. A year and a half later
it was officially declared over, and
since then we’ve been trying to find
ways to create good jobs so that the
rest of us see some of the economic
growth that we’ve been hearing about
since June 2009.
It would be easy to approach this
year’s Labor Day by creating an en-
emy — someone not on the side of
working people — to rally against.
Given the pitiful economic growth
we’ve seen, and the many excuses
given for not creating jobs, it would
be easy to find one. Identifying an
“us” and a “them” gives us a purpose
and a goal.
But, instead, I hope that union
members across Oregon use Labor
Day to remember how important
your work is, how important your
neighbor’s work is, and to remember
the value of the work that all Orego-
nians do.
When small businesses owners re-
member that labor fought for the
health care coverage they can now af-
ford for their kids; when doctors re-
member that small business owners
pay their wages; when road crew
workers remember that doctors are
paid to keep their kids healthy; and
when lawyers remember that the
road crews get them to work safely;
we’ll all be able to work together for
changes that are good for working
people.
Work is the one thing that the vast
majority of us have in common.
More than we share any demo-
graphic figures, hobbies, or location,
we all get up and go to work most
days of the week. And if it weren’t
for the work done by other Oregoni-
ans, we wouldn’t be able to.
You may have seen ads on TV last
winter showcasing workers and the
ways in which they depend on each
other. That ad was part of a broader
campaign to remind Oregonians —
union members and our nonunion
neighbors alike — of the value of our
work. Too many people don’t value
the work they do, and too many more
overlook the important work that
they depend on.
When we all value hard work —
no matter who does it, no matter
what the job title is — we won’t need
to identify an enemy. Instead, we’ll
be united enough and powerful
enough to fight the people who don’t
value work.
This Labor Day, I hope you’ll add
to the reminder of the value of work.
When you thank the gas station at-
tendant, remind that person that his
or her work is important to you.
When you pick up last minute sup-
plies for your picnic, thank the
cashier for working — especially on
Labor Day. You can find postcards on
our website to print out and leave
with service workers, thanking them,
if you’d rather not start the conversa-
tion. And you can also get ideas for
ways to put the “labor” back in La-
bor Day this year.
People who work for a living are
all on the same side, no matter how
much else we have (or don’t have) in
common. And that should be enough
to bind us together against anyone
who doesn’t value the hard work that
we each put in to our 40 hours a
week.
* For postcards and ideas to put
“labor” back in your Labor Day, go
to www.thanksforyourwork.org.
Tom Chamberlain is president of
the Oregon AFL-CIO.
New ‘anxiety index’ reveals economic
issues facing voters 50 and older
AARP survey shows that
across party lines, voters
want more information
on candidates’ plans for
Social Security and
Medicare
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the
coming November elections, a key
group of voters — non-retired baby
boomers ages 50 to 64 — are driven by
economic anxieties that extend well be-
yond the single issue of jobs, according
to the results of a new series of surveys
by AARP.
All voters age 50 and over want po-
litical candidates to better explain their
plans for Social Security and Medicare,
which will help them determine their
votes.
The particular pressures facing
boomer voters — across party lines —
are reflected in a new “Anxiety Index,”
which measures their worries on issues
including prices rising faster than in-
comes (75 percent worry somewhat or
very often about this), health expenses
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
(62 percent), not having financial secu-
rity in retirement (73 percent) and pay-
ing too much in taxes (71 percent).
By comparison, 32 percent of these
boomer voters regularly worry about
being able to find a full-time job with
benefits or keep up with their mortgage
or rent (30 percent), issues that are more
widely discussed as leading economic
issues for voters in the coming election.
“We know the issue of jobs is very
important to voters age 50-plus, but any
meaningful discussion of the economy
and this year’s election has to include
the future of Social Security and
Medicare,” said Nancy LeaMond,
AARP executive vice president. “For
these voters, ‘retirement security’ and
‘economic security’ are largely the
same thing.”
Non-retired boomer voters are pes-
simistic about retirement. Almost three-
in-four (72 percent) believe they will
have to delay retirement, and almost
two-in-three (65 percent) worry they
won’t have enough money to retire.
Half of these voters (50 percent) don’t
think they'll ever be able to retire. They
overwhelmingly (59 percent) believe
the recent economic downturn will
force them to rely more on Social Se-
curity and Medicare.
Anxiety about retirement security is
a main driver for all voters 50-plus.
Nearly seven-in-10 (69 percent) of re-
tired voters 50-plus worry about prices
rising faster than their incomes, and al-
most half (48 percent) worry about hav-
ing unaffordable health expenses, de-
spite the relative security provided by
Medicare. Only four-in-10 (42 percent)
black voters 50-plus are confident that
they will have enough money to live
comfortably throughout their retire-
ment. Hispanic voters 50-plus over-
whelmingly say that the recent eco-
nomic downturn negatively impacted
their personal circumstances (84 per-
cent) and will force them to rely more
on Social Security and Medicare (69
percent).
Economic anxieties among voters
50-plus are leading to a general dissat-
isfaction with political leaders. Voters
50-plus are as likely to say that their
personal economic circumstances were
negatively affected by political gridlock
in Washington (78 percent) as by the
(Turn to Page 25)
AUGUST 17, 2012