For Immediate Release Contact: Andrea Gage 262-309-0754
AFL-CIO Launches TV Ad in Several Wisconsin Markets Featuring Union Veteran on McCain’s Economic Record as First Action of New Union Veterans Council “Every Vet Respects John McCain’s War Record; It’s His Record in the Senate I have a Problem With,” Union Vet Jim Wasser Says in Ad
(Milwaukee, July 9) -- The AFL-CIO today announced the launch of a television advertising campaign featuring union veteran Jim Wasser, a Vietnam combat veteran, calling on working people to let Sen. John McCain know that his economic agenda is “not what we need.” The ad is the first major action of the newly formed Union Veterans Council, which will be announced tomorrow in Dayton, Ohio. A Wisconsin Union Veterans Council will be announced at a workers’ roundtable event tomorrow at the Building Trades Council in Milwaukee.
The Union Veterans Council will enlist millions of veterans to improve urgent veterans’ and pocketbook issues and expose the records of candidates for office at every level on these issues. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the new council will reach out to 2.1 million union veterans as well as other veterans and current enlistees in the Armed Services who are union members.
The ad will begin running in the Green Bay, La Crosse and Wausau media markets tomorrow and will air through the end of July.
Wasser, an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) union electrician and US Navy veteran who served in Vietnam, says that McCain’s record shows his priorities on issues like job investment and veterans’ health care are not those of veterans and working families.
“Every vet respects John McCain’s war record,” Wasser says in the ad. “It’s his record in the Senate I have a problem with.”
Wasser goes on to point out that the $10 billion McCain supports spending in Iraq could be used to help create jobs in states like Wisconsin, which have been especially hard hit by the sinking job market, housing crisis and skyrocketing costs of gas and food.
“Our nation’s veterans deserve much better than the failed Bush economy has given them,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. “With the formation of the AFL-CIO Union Veterans Council, veterans will be front and center in the effort to put our country back on track.”
In addition to airing in Wisconsin, the ad will also run in Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The ad will run in communities in those states that have been hard hit by the failed Bush economic agenda and rapidly souring economy. The ad will run for three weeks, through the end of July. View the ad at http://www.aflcio.org/issues/politics/unionveterans2008_videos.cfm
The formation of the national Union Veterans Council coincides with the formation of state councils in five states -- Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, Ohio and West Virginia. In the coming weeks, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Virginia and other states are expected to form councils.
The effort is part of the broadest mobilization of working people in history. The AFL-CIO is currently engaging more than 13 million union voters in 24 priority states, including Wisconsin, on issues such as health care reform, good jobs, fair trade and the freedom to form and join unions. In early March, the AFL-CIO launched its national “McCain Revealed” campaign, which focuses on educating union voters about John McCain’s anti-worker record and plans and calling on McCain to chart a different course that puts working families above corporate interests.
For a full script of the “Not Now” ad, please contact the AFL-CIO Media Outreach Department at 202-637-5018.
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