Local 1700 members responded tremendously to the call to arms throughout this election season. We engaged in the political process more than we ever have before. I could not possibly be more proud of our union on this day when we achieved our primary goal, the re-election of President Obama. News reports have acknowledged that the work unions did during the campaign and in getting people to the polls was decisive in the election outcome.
There are many individual Local 1700 members who went well beyond the call of duty and who gave this campaign everything they had. I can’t begin to express to you the depth of my gratitude for all you did. Our nation owes you a great debt.
Even more impressive than the election results is Local 1700 members’ new spirit of engagement in the political work we need to be involved in.
I wish we could all just relax now and let our elected officials do their jobs. But the lesson we learned four years ago is that if we want to get things done we can’t wait for them to do it. It may have seemed difficult enough to overcome the billionaires and their right-wing extremists, but that was actually the easy part. Our great victory at the polls only won for us the opportunity to engage in the much more difficult fight for the fundamental societal change we need if working people are going to be able to secure a decent future for our families and our planet.
We’ve shown once again that when we stand together we can achieve great things. Now we are called upon to keep fighting. First we need to get a fair contract with Greyhound. Then we need to step up our fight to end the unfair exemption of bus drivers from the Fair Labor Standards Act.
For today, let us savor this moment. Tomorrow it is time again for struggle.