Senator Kerry Endorsed For Re-Election

Massachusetts AFL-CIO endorses Senator John Kerry for re-election at February Executive Council Meeting

MALDEN AND NATICK, MA, ISSUED February 15, 2008 – The Massachusetts AFL-CIO, the largest labor organization in Massachusetts which represents 400,000 working families in over 700 local unions in the public, building trades, and industrial sectors in the Commonwealth, formally endorsed Senator John Kerry for re-election at their February Executive Council Meeting held in Natick on February 7, 2008.

Throughout his career, Senator Kerry has fought to put our economy back on track and to create new family-sustaining jobs across Massachusetts and the country.  Since his election to the U.S. Senate in 1984, John Kerry has earned a 95% lifetime AFL-CIO voting record on important working family issues.  “Senator Kerry has been a powerful ally for working families across the Nation for nearly 25 years as our junior Senator,” remarked Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Robert Haynes. “We are confident that he will continue advocating and standing up for union members and their families, and all workers, once he is re-elected.”

“I am honored today to earn the endorsement of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. Working families are the backbone of Massachusetts’ economy and for more than 24 years I have fought to make sure their voices are heard in Washington,” said Senator Kerry. “From fighting to increase the minimum wage, expand health insurance coverage, increase funding for law enforcement, address the nursing shortage, provide assistance to veterans, and work to bring an end to tax breaks that encourage sending American jobs overseas, I have always fought for the interests of working people.”

In 2004, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO mobilized nearly 10,000 members who work in Massachusetts but live in New Hampshire to get out and vote for John Kerry for President, and the Senator won the swing state by just a few thousand votes. The National AFL-CIO and member unions were monumental in getting their members across the country to vote for the Kerry-Edwards ticket in 2004.  The Massachusetts AFL-CIO and its affiliates will embark on a similar massive member education and mobilization effort for John Kerry’s Senatorial re-election bid. “We’ve been proud to support Senator Kerry throughout his career and this year it rises to a whole new level considering what an effective fighter and eloquent statesman the Senator has been over the years,” said Massachusetts AFL-CIO Public Sector Executive Vice President Michael Mullane, from the International Association of Fire Fighters. “We’ve never been prouder to have a champion like Senator Kerry as we head into his re-election campaign.” Massachusetts AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Louis Mandarini, Jr., said, “He deserves the honor of re-election and we deserve the honor of his career in the Senate being extended another term in November.”
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