AFL-CIO President John Sweeney to Join Maine Working Families

For Neighborhood Walks and Fair Trade Fest October 1 & 2

Union Members to go Door-to-Door about Jobs, Health Care

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney will join workers in Maine Friday and Saturday, October 1-2 to go door-to-door as part of the largest mobilization of working Americans in history for this presidential election.  Sweeney will also attend Bangor’s Fair Trade Fest Saturday, October 2 at the Bangor City Waterfront.  Sweeney will talk about the importance of making the global economy work for working families.

As part of the AFL-CIO’s Labor ’04 program, the union volunteers will knock on doors and talk to other union families about where the presidential candidates stand on the issues of jobs and affordable, quality health care.  They include teachers, plumbers, hotel workers, fire fighters, painters, garment workers, engineers, nurses and workers from a broad range of other professions. 

Since January 2001, Maine has experienced heavy job losses in industries that typically provide higher wages and good benefits, such as manufacturing.  Average wages in the state’s growing industries are 27 percent lower than those in Maine’s shrinking industries.  As of June 2004, more than 7,000 residents exhausted their unemployment benefits and still could not find jobs.