Each year, the Teamsters Union awards thousands of dollars to deserving students through scholarships. Among other prizes, awards totaling $1,000 are given to students who answer a specific question through essays. Last year, applicants were asked to write about how their parents’ or grandparent’s involvement in the Teamsters has influenced their lives. Winners were decided and awards were given before the war on workers was declared, but we felt these students’ messages about working families are timeless.
For Imelda Larios, daughter of Local 630 member Daniel Larios, union membership is about more than building a strong middle class. For Larios, union membership exemplifies everything positive about being an American, from a chance at a dream to the values of democracy.
The Teamsters work hard to educate all of their members so that they will be better prepared for any kind of situation in the workplace. All the Teamsters are like one big family and I know that no matter what happens my father’s voice will be heard through the Teamsters.
My father’s membership has taught me the importance of a democratic society in which people can organize and fight for fair treatment. Through the Teamsters I have come to see that being a part of the union is a clear advantage. The Teamsters negotiations with employers allow for a higher pay, better health care and overall, a less stressful career.
The Teamsters are important to be because they allow me to stay informed through my father. As I start to enter the workplace, I am more aware of my rights and am better prepared to defend myself should I be mistreated in the workplace.
A PRESIDENT STANDS UP TO BE COUNTED:
ReplyDeleteAn understanding between the two main political parties hasn’t deterred him from remembering who he is and what he represents as President of these United States of America to us the little people. President Obama is the embodiment of hope for the little guy/gal with almost no reason to keep hoping for a better day for himself/herself and his or her families in these difficult economic times.
The President has no trouble understanding that what Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin represents is the dismantling of every positive, non-partisan impulse that decent human beings in this Country have ever expressed, via passage of legislation to aid the less fortunate among us in America. Ryan has supported Scott Walker’s attempts to destroy ‘Collective Bargaining in his state and counts that as merely another way to cut programs and government overhead; because in Ryan’s mind no big Government Programs or 'Unions' fighting for their members right to safety on the job or a better wage are wanted in Wisconsin or America.
The President, unlike some has never lost his focus, and that as President, he represents the America who wants to nurture and educate its kids, so they'll hopefully have productive lives. The Americans that want to live lives of dignity, pursuing their art, or developing their ideas and inventions, so that America is just a little better.
Yes, some of these Americans will become incredibly wealthy as a result of persuing enlightened self-interest in the market place. They’re lucky, because when they get there they still won’t measure a person by their wealth, but by who they are as human beings. Incredibly they won’t consider themselves better than their fellows; they’ll embrace those fellows and value them for who they are and what they can do for America. It takes a man who believes in people to feel that way about the average person.
Mr. President, taxing the Rich at a higher rate is a political obligation that could never go away in these hard times. People like Rep. Paul Ryan, are haters of a compassionate government and seek to direct us into the dark ages of political indifference our fore fathers from Europe came to America to leave behind. Whatever mistakes we as a people have made or will make in the future, letting someone like Rep. Paul Ryan foster notion, that progressive government is a mistake, instead of a necessity will not be one of them.
The Middle Class of America will stand behind President Obama, for all less fortunate Americans, and not be eliminated by this Palace guard of people haters that has come to be the Conservatives Wing of the Republican Party. For any of you who work two jobs and pay for gas on credit cards you can’t afford to get to work in a car, because there is no public transportation alternative, so many others suffer the strain of surviving with you in our country. At least we have a President who cares about those sufferings. A President who will seek to ‘Tax the Rich’ and to balance our budget and help the Middle and Working Class families of America; because he’s not going let the Rich avoid paying their fair share.
Mike Flynn ‘Middle-Class Mike