From the Labor Commission of the CPUSA, updates, information, news, analysis, and organizing materials in solidarity with workers of the world.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Model Letter to the Editor

Here is a sample letter to the editor you can adapt and use locally to show support for striking GM workers in your local newspaper:

"Dear Editor,

The Big Three automakers are demanding 30% cuts in the wage and benefit package of UAW workers at GM, Chrysler and Ford. What happens in this year’s auto talks affects everybody, not just auto workers.

That’s been true since the 1940s. For five decades, raises and improvements won in auto industry bargaining set the standard for workers throughout our society. The power of the UAW and other unions created the middle class lifestyle people call the American Dream.

This year’s auto talks affect everybody as well. Only this time if the Big Three succeeds in further eliminating more good-paying jobs, cutting back workers’ health care benefits and pensions, and weakening organized labor, we will all pay the price.

America needs a strong, thriving manufacturing base to maintain a strong, thriving middle class and offer opportunity for the poor. Cutting back on workers’ health care benefits may help corporations’ bottom lines but will only worsen the economic well-being and health of Americans.

We need to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the UAW to demand a decent contract for them while we all agree to come together to fight for the common good. America’s workers need fair trade agreements that keep good paying jobs in the United States, new manufacturing jobs here that reduce our dependence on oil (building plug-in hybrid vehicles, wind turbines and solar cells) and expansion of Medicare to provide guaranteed health care for all.



Signed ___________"

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