June 24, 2015
By Marc Bussanich
New York, NY—The Independent Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, was speaking in a union hall in Marshalltown, Iowa on June 13 about his platform to increase prosperity for middle class Americans. After his speech, the South Carolina AFL-CIO issued a resolution that they would be supporting his candidacy, and calling on all of organized labor to do the same.
“We call on the AFL-CIO, union members and working people everywhere to unite behind Bernie Sanders and elect the president America’s workers desperately need,” the state’s labor federation said in a release.
Senator Sanders responded to the country’s first major labor organization’s call to support his presidential candidacy.
“We are very pleased to have received the support of the executive board and their recommendation that the South Carolina and national AFL-CIO follow their lead,” Sanders said.
Indeed, the resolution “strongly urges” the national AFL-CIO to endorse Sanders.
Senator Sanders was scheduled to speak at a Town Hall meeting in Charleston on Sunday, but it was cancelled because of the horrific tragedy at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Friday. Sanders' campaign said "the healing of the Charleston community has to be the only priority in this time of mourning,"
The Sanders campaign is generating a lot of buzz across the country. Indeed, the International Business Times reported on Sunday that Senator Sanders could win the New Hampshire primary.
“A Suffolk University poll of likely voters in the New Hampshire primary conducted this month found 41 percent supported Clinton and 31 percent supported Sanders. The next closest candidate, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, had the support of just 7 percent of those surveyed,” wrote IBT.
Organized labor typically votes Democratic, but with Senator Sanders vocally calling for a concerted effort to fight income inequality by creating millions of new jobs vis-à-vis building new infrastructure, tackling climate change and taxing the very wealthy is a message that the South Carolina AFL-CIO says organized labor has to embrace.
The full resolution is available via http://bit.ly/1Kac3DW
