State of the Union Message from Lynn Kinney

DC50 Business Manager/Secretary-Treasurer

February 2010

It’s January.  It’s a new year.  It’s an election year.  Let’s get down to business.

First things first.

Every one of us needs to give a big “Mahalo” to the members of District Council 50 who’ve helped us win so much in the last few months!  Our Local Jobs for Local People campaign is kicking butt.  The Rail PLA.  The Aloha Stadium jobs.  The new work that Senator Inouye brought.  The Disney Project. And the TOD victory.  TOD? What’s that?

TOD stands for Transit Oriented Development.  It means all the work that’ll happen at the stops along the rail line.  Tens of thousands of people getting on and off the train at each stop.  There will be shopping, offices, restaurants. And we will get that work.

But all of it isn’t enough.

Not as long as so many of our guys are out of work.  We have to do more.

And that brings me to the political elections in 2010.

Politicians will be knocking on the union’s door asking for our money, our help, and our votes so that they can get the job they want.

I’ve got news for them.

Before we talk about the job they want, we’re going to talk about the jobs we need.  And we aren’t going to settle for a speech or a promise.  We don’t need either.  We need jobs.  For our members.  Period.

So here’s what I propose…

I call it “Our Paycheck Political Platform.”  Any politician who wants our help has to add a “plank” to our platform.  A “plank” is a very specific proposal for how that politician will get some of our members back to work.

What are they going to do to make sure every hotel remodeling job is our job?  What are they going to do about guaranteeing we get the work before developers, builders, contractors can get their permit? What are they going to do when non-union subs import workers from the Mainland or Mexico?

And we don’t want to hear about how they’ll help us get our “fair share.”

Our fair share is every one of the jobs so that every one of our members goes to work every day.

As candidates give us their proposed planks for “Our Paycheck Political Platform”, we’ll look at them, share them with you, and then decide who we work for and who we work against.

Thank you and Mahalo.