Vermont State Labor Council AFL-CIO issued the following announcement on March 30.
VT AFL-CIO ENDORSES LABOR CHAMPION KESHA RAM HINSDALE FOR U.S. CONGRESS IN DEMOCRATIC PARTY PRIMARY - UNION YES!
MONTPELIER, VT – Today, the Vermont AFL-CIO announced its endorsement of Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale’s campaign for Congress in the Democratic Primary. With 11,000 members throughout Vermont, the labor organization's elected Executive Board voted to back Ram Hinsdale based on the strength of her decade-long, career-spanning voting record and advocacy for workers. Ram Hinsdale is the only candidate in the Democratic primary race to have earned Labor endorsements.
“Senator Ram Hinsdale is a true Labor champion,” said David Van Deusen, President of the Vermont AFL-CIO. “In our Statehouse, she has fought tirelessly to advance the interests of working people, be it raising the minimum wage, supporting paid family medical leave for all, protecting public pensions, defending our core Union rights, or pushing for the passage of card check. And she has not been afraid to buck her own party's leadership in her principled efforts to support Unions and working families. Thus, it is clear to me that Kesha is ready and able to do the same for us in Washington, DC. As our next Congresswoman, I know she will fight like hell to pass the PRO Act and to defend our democracy against a rising far right. It is for these reasons that the Vermont AFL-CIO is proud to endorse Kesha Ram Hinsdale for United States Congress.”
Sen. Ram Hinsdale remarked, “Working Vermonters – the people installing our solar panels, serving in the hospitals, building our infrastructure, and making our state run – these folks literally build our bridge to the future. We've said from the beginning of this campaign that working people are the center of our movement, and I am proud to have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with working Vermonters in my decade in the State Legislature. It is an immense honor to have earned the endorsement of the Vermont AFL-CIO.”
During her ten years the State Legislature, Ram Hinsdale caused what she’s described as - in a term popularized by the late Congressman John Lewis - “good trouble” in the fight for workers, even taking on her own Democratic leadership to defend educators’ collective bargaining rights. More recently, as a Senator, Ram Hinsdale took a stand with labor leaders and civil servants on the State House steps to protect retirement pensions.
“Let’s be frank: proposing to cut pensions during a global pandemic is an egregious attack on the working class. We know which side Senator Ram Hinsdale is on, and that’s right on our side, on the State House steps and beyond. That is why we are confident that Labor will be at the forefront of her work in Washington,” said Katherine Harris, AFSCME Vice President for the VT AFL-CIO.
In Congress, Ram Hinsdale has publicly pledged to support the PRO Act and the Public Sector Freedom to Negotiate Act, legislation that would reverse decades of attacks on workers’ rights. She has also supported a $15 hourly minimum wage tied to inflation.
With the AFL-CIO’s endorsement, Ram Hinsdale’s Congressional campaign now has support from three labor organizations with membership in Vermont. Communications Workers of America (CWA) District 1 and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association endorsed earlier this month.
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Kesha Ram Hinsdale is running for Congress to be Vermont’s fighter in Washington. Born and raised in a working-class family, she has spent her decade-long tenure in the Vermont Legislature fighting for the dignity of working Vermonters. As the daughter of an Indian immigrant father and Jewish American mother, Ram Hinsdale would be the first woman of color elected to represent Vermont in federal office and would be the first Jew of Color elected to Congress. Upon election to the State House in 2008, she became the youngest state legislator in the country, and she made history in 2020 as the first woman of color elected to Vermont’s State Senate. Ram Hinsdale has an established track record as a leader in the Legislature on environmental, economic and racial justice, and she will bring this leadership to our nation’s capital as Vermont’s first Congresswoman.
Learn more at KeshaForVermont.com
Original source can be found here.
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