Congressman Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) tells GCIU convention delegates that it is up to them to get out the vote to elect worker-friendly candidates if they want to reverse the GOP's business-friendly agenda.

Hawaiian Democratic Congressman Neil Abercrombie delivered a wake-up call to the GCIU leadership and delegates attending the GCIU's Fifth Quadrennial Convention: Failure to get out the vote for the Nov. 7 election will hurt the lives of working families.

Introduced to the delegates and guests by GCIU Vice Pres. Lawrence Martinez as "a good friend of working families and a great friend to the GCIU," Abercrombie noted that conservative forces in both the United States and Canada are trying to limit the rights of workers.

And globalization and the growing list of multi national corporations will affect North America and workers in the rest of the world, he declared.

As a member of the Democratic Party leadership in the House of Representatives, he issued a challenge to the delegates to get out the vote in favor of labor-friendly candidates on both sides of the border.

Abercrombie noted: "We have only 57 days to make a difference and get workers and their families out to the polls to vote for lawmakers who will stand up for their interests."

He also acknowledged the GCIU's Canadian members and said a similar conservative drive to limit their rights is evident north of the border.

He called on the GCIU leadership in both countries to educate their members and rally the vote to defeat policies and politicians that harm workers and their families.

"It is easy to forget that the same anti-worker policies that are spreading in the U.S. and Canada are now affecting workers around the world, and we have to start taking the leadership to reverse them," he added.

Abercrombie noted that the recent federal appeals court judgement by three Reagan-Bush-appointed judges reversed five years of NLRB rulings in favor of GCIU members and other unionists in the Detroit newspaper strike.

"Some people talk about Ronald Reagan and his successor George Bush and what 'nice guys' they are – but they appointed the three judges and others who are trying to take away food from your tables and your pension rights," Abercrombie boomed.

Speaking about the Republican candidate's much-ballyhooed "compassionate conservative" philosophy, Abercrombie said it "means George W. Bush feels real bad when he kicks you out of work."

He also criticized Bush's plan to privatize Social Security and turn the national retirement fund over to the uncertain fluctuations of the stock market. "Bush tries to make it sound like a good deal, but the truth is that privatization of Social Security would hurt most poorer Americans," Abercrombie explained.

He noted that surveys show that 76 percent of workers who receive information and advice from their union voted for the candidates the union supported.

Leaders have to reach their members one by one and get them to the polls to vote for the right candidates, he emphasized. "If union members go to the polls, we win," he said.