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At the March 4 luncheon of United Auto Workers Local 870 retirees, the question was asked, "How many of you will vote in the Texas primary?" The answer, of course, was, "everybody!"
The two million seniors living in Texas surely provided a great many of the 2.8 million record-setting voters in the primary election. We had good reason to be politically active, with the Bush Administration suggesting cuts in Medicare and several candidates admitting that they plan to continue the Bush assaults against Social Security. News reports say that retirees need a total of $225,000 to cover their health care costs. Other reports say that there are five million senior Americans suffering from malnutrition! If reactionaries in the State Legislature continue their efforts to force "voter identification" legislation through, millions of seniors without drivers' licenses will find it harder to vote.
Texas
seniors take these challenges with good cheer and confidence in our own ability
to straighten things out. Local 870 members regularly share jokes at their meetings.
Bob Aday, former president of the Ford local in Dallas, is pictured telling
a one:
Negotiations between union
members and their employer were at an impasse. The union denied that their workers
were flagrantly abusing their contract's sick-leave provisions.
One morning at the bargaining table, the company's chief negotiator held aloft
the morning edition of the newspaper, "This man," he announced, "called
in sick yesterday!" There, on the sports page, was a photo of the supposedly
ill employee, who had just won a local golf tournament with an excellent score.
A union negotiator broke the silence in the room. "Wow," he said.
"Think of what kind of score he could have had if he hadn't been sick!"
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