Political Mission Statement:
Politics affect every aspect of your job and our union. We have a simple philosophy when it comes to spending money politics or endorsing candidates:
- We are non-partisan – meaning we give money to and endorse Republicans and Democrats.
- We support candidates that support your jobs and our union – we don’t get involved in other issues.
- Our endorsement is a recommendation based on the best information we have – how you vote is your business, we just hope you will consider supporting our candidates no matter what political party they belong to.
Why we work with both parties:
Local 49 is committed to working with both political parties to advance our interests and concerns. By having advocates that have been elected as both republicans and democrats we are able to advance our interests and issues to a much broader group of elected officials than if we were to focus all our energy working with one party. We also recognize that our membership is split, about a third are republicans, a third democrats, and a third in the middle. We respect that, and will never try to push one party over the other to anyone.
Local 49 is well respected and has built relationships with the top republican and democratic leaders in our region. This allows us to have influence no matter who is in charge of state government. This philosophy has allowed us to stop right to work from advancing in Minnesota, and also allowed us to keep prevailing wage. It has also led to us getting things done for job creation when there is divided government, when most others don’t have the relationships to be engaged.
Local 49 strives to educate our members on the issues that affect their jobs. The better educated you as a member are on the issues, the better you will be able to help advocate for the work we do and keep 49ers working safely. The first step is knowing who represents you. Use this link to find out!
Having the facts is incredibly important as well. Linked below are several websites that do a good job of presenting information.
How to become more politically engaged
If you are interested in learning, advocating, participating in the political process, or have any questions about anything involving politics please contact Legislative Director John Pollard at jpollard@local49.org, he is happy to answer any questions you might have. You should also sign up for email alerts, which will provide information on times that it is important to engage on issues that impact our jobs and union.
