Graphic Communicator photo by Herald Grandstaff

GCIU Vice Pres. Lawrence Martinez shows conference delegates a brochure detailing the top prize in a Political Action Fund drawing for a Greek islands cruise or $7,000 cash.

Local unions and members can help GCIU's legislative cause by selling tickets for a vacation drawing for a cruise of Greek islands or $7,000 cash.

So advised GCIU Vice Pres. Lawrence Martinez, chairman of the General Board Legislative Committee, when he addressed delegates at the recent joint session of the North American Commercial, Newspaper, and Specialty Conference.

He observed that organized labor needs to provide support to legislative friends. To help meet that need, the GCIU Political Action Fund is selling tickets for a wide range of prizes. And Martinez noted that prizes will be awarded to the sellers of the top three tickets. He asked for help in selling tickets. Details about prizes were printed in the May-June issue of the Graphic Communicator.

Martinez observed that, with sufficient effort and monetary support, organized labor can improve on the record of the 1998 national election, when Democrats narrowed Republican margins in the United States Congress. Democratic members of the House of Representatives facing particularly tough challenges, he said, are Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii and David Bonior of Michigan.

Martinez also emphasized that, in accordance with the AFL-CIO goal of 2,000 union members running for state and local elections in 2000, GCIU members should consider running for public office. He noted that the AFL-CIO has a program to train people for running for public office.

At the June General Board meeting, Legislative Committee members reported that the "1999 and 2000 state elections are very important to working families. With 2000 being a year that a complete census will be taken, we will need to make sure that we elect state officials who are sensitive to working families [because] they will be responsible for the shaping of congressional districts that will remain with us for a decade."

Martinez advised conference delegates that the elections in 2000 are the most important that labor has faced. To keep prosperity on track, he said, trade unionists must help elect friends of labor.

"When union workers vote," he noted, "all of the people win."