Bernie Sanders Lands His Biggest Union Endorsement Yet

[nc4bo]

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bernie-sanders-lands-biggest-union-endorsement/story?id=35144187

Bernie Sanders has landed his biggest labor endorsement to date: the American Postal Workers Union, or APWU.

The group represents 200,000 U.S. Postal Service employees and retirees from across all 50 states. The APWU executive board announced its choice early this morning.

“Politics as usual has not worked. It’s time for a political revolution,” Postal Workers President Mark Dimondstein said in a statement, invoking the battle cry of the Vermont senator. “Bernie Sanders stands above all others as a true champion of postal workers and other workers throughout the country. He doesn’t just talk the talk. He walks the walk.”

[LWolf]

1. "He does't just talk the talk. He walks the walk." nt

[nc4bo]

2. Exactly.

There is an effort to destroy the USPS. That they put their trust in Sanders is very revealing, to me.

[msrizzo]

3. That's a big one.

Kudos to Team Sanders.

[NCTraveler]

4. Excellent pick up. Nt

[BootinUp]

5. Congrats to Bernie and his supporters. nt

[Starry Messenger]

6. Good get for him.

[in_cog_ni_to]

7. Finally, a Union that endorsed for all the right reasons!

IOW, not bought and paid for.

HUGE endorsement for Bernie!

PEACE
LOVE
BERNIE

[George II]

13. So how do you make the distinction between unions that endorse "for all the right reasons" and...

...unions that endorse because they're "bought and paid for"?

[stillwaiting]

8. Thank God. I would be beside myself if they endorsed HRC.

I truly don't trust HRC when it comes to STRENGTHENING our public postal system. At all.

[AzDar]

9. Bernie "The Real Deal" Sanders!!

[lonestarnot]

10. YAY! APWU smart!

[99th_Monkey]

11. Woot!! Huzzah! This is huge. US Postal workers are under fierce attack by the GOP

And they KNOW who is in their corner unequivocally, and it's Bernie Sanders.

GOP platform calls for privatizing USPS
The Republican Party’s proposed platform suggests that the US Postal Service is in need of “restructuring”. Not surprisingly, the restructuring involves privatization. The brief item starts with one of the most time-honored postal cliches: “mail delivery from the era of the Pony Express cannot long survive”. (I don’t know about you, but my mail is delivered from a mail truck. And the Pony Express didn’t “survive” the nineteenth century, never mind the twentieth!)

The plank concludes “In light of the Postal Service’s seriously underfunded pension system, Congress should explore a greater role for private enterprise in appropriate aspects of the mail-processing system.”

Most readers will know that the USPS pension system is actually better funded than most private pension systems, but then, you don’t read party platforms for reasoned analysis of the issues. When it comes to privatizing, which is a matter of faith for the GOP, any excuse will do.
http://www.savethepostoffice.com/gop-platform-calls-privatizing-usps-0

[George II]

12. There's a nice summary of union endorsements here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251798104

[ljm2002]

14. Bernie knows where to find his "walking shoes"... n/t