Tape Release 11/2/2020

The Nomination process deadline has passed as of this past Friday and the following nominations for Local 1170 officers were received. Being that no other nominations were presented, the following will be sworn in as your officers with their terms set to begin on January 1st once they choose to accept the nomination.

Diane Papas for Secretary of your Local.  Diane is a Desk tech working out of the Plymouth Ave operations center.

Sue Phillips as Treasurer.  Sue is a Desk Tech working out of the Plymouth/Fitzhugh operations center.

Rich Winter as Vice President.  Rich is a Desk Tech working out of the Plymouth/Fitzhugh operations center.

And John Pusloskie, President who’ll begin my 5th term as your President.

Congratulations to those nominated, and we look forward to serving the members of Local 1170.

Tomorrow is Election Day.  I hope you’ve made a plan to vote if you haven’t already done so.  Due to the Covid-19 pandemic,  a record number of mail in ballots have been cast, which have been reported to be almost 60 million out of the 93 million early votes, almost two thirds. Several key battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan will not begin counting the mail in ballots until tomorrow.  For example, Pennsylvania has over two million mail in ballots, in a state where Trump won by around 40,000 votes last time.  We need to think about this year’s national elections as election week, not election night.  The election of President, United States Senators, US House of Reps will take days if not longer to count all the ballots.  Election Commissions certify the results, not politicians and the media.  Each state has different rules and deadlines as when ballots have to be postmarked and counted by.  For the sake of our Democracy every ballot cast within the deadlines and rules should be counted and those with the responsibility to certify the elections and poll workers should be allowed to do their jobs.

For workers and the Unions that represent the workers of this country, much is at stake.  The right to join a Union, the right to collectively bargain, the right to organize and the right to collective action have all been attacked in recent Supreme Court and National Labor Relations Board decisions.  Nothing happening at the Federal level is promoting or protecting the rights of workers.  As a guideline for when you go to the polls tomorrow, below is a list of candidates endorsed by the Rochester Labor Council Political Action Committee.  The Committee made the endorsements based on candidates who agreed to be interviewed and responded to a survey of questions, centered around the rights of workers, Health Care, Social Security and Medicare.  Ultimately the choice is yours on who to cast your vote for.

This is your President John Pusloskie, thanking you for calling your Union tape and we are Union Strong.