At the Texas AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education (COPE) convention May 9 in Irving, Charley Williams of the International Association of Machists and the Alliance for Retired Americans made a passionate plea for the state's union leaders to get behind the formation of a statewide retiree organization.
Williams
recalled the history of the National Council of Senior Citizens (NCSC). They
were credited for the enactment of Medicare in 1965. When Lyndon Johnson signed
Medicare into law, he flew to Independence Missouri in honor of Harry Truman.
NCSC officers flew with him. "If it had not been for the NCSC there would
have been no Medicare," Williams quoted Johnson as saying.
Even afterwards, NCSC brought about many improvements, such as COLA, inclusion of widowed children, inclusion of disabled people.
The NCSC carried out another big fight in the 1990s. Republican Heaveyweight Newt Gingrich wanted to gut Medicare. $270 Billion out of the system. Their cry was that they needed to take away funding "to save the program." This was the last big fight of the NCSC. Gingrich's cutting ambitions were diminished. Steve Petrullis of UAW was national director NCSC at that time.
The AFL-CIO wanted an even bigger organization. They had 85,000 retirees in NCSC. So they appointed a strategic planning committee, and Charley Williams was on it, to form ARA. He said, "We have 3.5 million members now, and we're still growing. On May 20th, you're going to have your founding convention for the TARA. That will make 26 states chartered. Michigan, then Minnesota, then Iowa are next. The West Coast is all chartered.
Williams said that the retiree is the most dependable voter.
To finance the ARA, union internationals put in $100,000, but that's been boosted up to $110,000. None of the "Change to Win" unions dropped out of ARA. They are still funding ARA.
Williams said, "We now have a golden opportunity to turn things around." He went on to explain the funding plan. Funding here in Texas would work this way: $5,000 from int'ls. Machinists have already pledged. They will give $2,500 down payment on May 20th. We will need 1 or 2 full time people to organize all the regions in Texas.
"It will make your state AFL-CIO and your local unions a hell of a lot stronger with that senior vote.... Our seniors have all this knowledge, this working knowledge as activists, as union leaders and so on and so forth, throughout their whole lifetime… a mind is a terrible thing to waste. We need to bring that back, collectively bring that back so that we can be a more powerful union."
Once retirees are mobilized and informed, Williams said we can,m "Get politicians elected and make them pay attention after they are in office."
The meeting begins at 10 AM at the Texas AFL-CIO office, 1105 LaVaca in Austin. All interested parties are invited.
The COPE convention went on to endorse these candidates for statewide office:
U.S. Senate: Barbara Radnofsky
Governor: Chris Bell
Lieutenant Governor: Maria Luisa Alvarado
Attorney General: David Van Os
Comptroller: Fred Head
Land Commissioner: Jerry Patterson
Agriculture Commissioner: Hank Gilbert
Railroad Commissioner: No Endorsement
Texas Supreme Court Place 2: Bill Moody
Presiding Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals: J R Molina