Fight Club is the,call to action’ segment within Grit Northwest.
It’s built to educate and motivate you to fight back against attacks on your right’s as a Union Carpenter to provide for yourself and your family.
Fight Club is not for excuse makers or finger pointers.
If standing proud, with your brothers and sisters to protect what we have worked so hard to achieve is not your cup of tea, you can stop listening now.
Fight Club members care about their careers and aren’t afraid to take action to protect it. They don’t assume or expect someone else to do the heavy lifting needed to strengthen their union and better their lives.
Fight Club members roll up their sleeves and get involved, because they understand and appreciate that a union is only as strong as its members.
My question for you is, are you ready to join Fight Club?
If so, let’s get to work.
Our guest today is Cory Elliott, Government Relations Liaison of the Northwest Carpenters Union and a member of the Local 129 in the South Puget Sound area. Cory will explain why RTW is so bad for workers and what we are doing to fight it.
The threat of candidates that support RTW in this coming election has been identified. RTW can have real consequence in our ability to provide for ourselves and our families.
Vote in this coming election and support those candidates who have your back, and let’s kick RTW out of our house.
Know someone wanting to fight to protect our union?
If so, tell them about Fight Club and be sure to join Grit Nation by following
the hyperlink in the show notes.
You will be entered to win an official “I’ve Got Grit T-shirt when you do.
Welcome to another edition of Fight Club. Fight Club is the call to action segment within Grit Northwest. It's built to educate and motivate you to fight back against attacks on your rights as a union Carpenter to provide for yourself and your family. Fight Club is not for excuse makers or finger pointers. If standing proud with your brothers and sisters to protect what we have worked so hard to achieve is not your cup of tea. You can stop listening now. Fight Club members care about their careers and aren't afraid to take action to protect it. They don't assume or expect someone else to do the heavy lifting needed to strengthen their union and better their lives by club members roll up their sleeves and get involved because they understand and appreciate that the union is only as strong as its members. My question for you is are you ready to join Fight Club? If so, let's get to work. Our guest today is Corey Elliot Government Relations liaison of the Northwest carpenters union and a member of local 129 in the south Puget Sound area. Cory will explain why right to work is so bad for workers and what we're doing to fight it. Welcome to fight club, Cory.
Cory Elliott:
Hey, Joe, happy to be here.
Joe Cadwell:
It's great to have you on the show. Cory I understand. You're in Billings, Montana right now. As you know, Corey, the premise of Fight Club is a threat has been identified. What is that threat? And how do we fight it?
Cory Elliott:
Well, I think it's just getting active and getting voting on these important elections around the council and around the country.
Joe Cadwell:
Absolutely. And what are you doing in Billings, Montana right now.
Cory Elliott:
So we've got a lot of Council staff coming out here. I'm in Billings came out here last weekend. We're divided around the major cities throughout Montana, we have about 25 Council reps that are out here knocking on doors, we're teaming up with the AFL CIO, who has pulled a list of union doors. So we can go talk about some important issues that are coming up for vote and are currently being voted on. Especially the governor's race. I know that Matt Swanson has talked about this already on the show. But the governorship is the backstop for us to protect right to work in this state. We've had governor Bullock as the governor in the past, and he's veto right to work legislation that discovered was desk, we're now supporting. Mike Cooney, who who was lieutenant governor, who is now running for governor who will also be a backstop for us for right to work. So it's important that we get him elected. His opponent is Greg Jean forte, and he's currently a US House member. And he's openly spoke in favor of right to work. And what right to work with you for us is it would really restrict our ability to organize, to negotiate and to represent workers throughout the state. There's a mechanism involved with right to work that, that allows people not to pay for their union service, but still maintain their union benefits. So it's a it's a, it's a real awful system that will really hurt our ability to to be a strong union in a state.
Joe Cadwell:
It's pretty clear that right to work has done nothing for workers in the state of Idaho since it passed nearly 30 years ago, we can see that in the lower wages and the decreased benefits and the lack of market share within the state of Idaho. And it makes so much sense that we're devoting so much energy and time to Montana, really appreciate you being out there.
Cory Elliott:
Absolutely. The one thing about Idaho is if you go back 30 years ago to the talking points to why legislators were pushing for this bill is one thing they said it would create all these new these new jobs. And that was true, the workers wages went down so much. And their benefits went down so much that people had to work multiple jobs to make what they were making before. And so they were they were correct. There was more jobs that were created because people had to work more jobs to survive.
Joe Cadwell:
Lower paying jobs aren't exactly the way to raise a family or to have long term success as someone in the working middle class in America. So Cory aside from your hard work in knocking on doors, making a union members aware of how bad right to work is for workers. You're supporting it sounds like Mike Cooney for his bid for the governor. What other races important out there in Montana right now?
Cory Elliott:
Yeah, we're also supporting Steve Bullock for US Senate. He's been a champion of labor and his tenure as governor. We're excited to see him in DC fighting for us for our labor standards, and maybe some infrastructure funding throughout the nation. Steve's just been hands down one of our greatest allies in our council, and Korea
Joe Cadwell:
because this is Fight Club and our members are expecting a call to action. What is the very least that member can do right now? Just a few days out from election day to get involved?
Cory Elliott:
I'd say the most important thing they can do right now is vote. get educated on the issues. We have record turnout of voter participation right now in early voting. Don't get caught on the sidelines, get in the game. get active. Make sure your voice is heard.
Joe Cadwell:
That's great advice. Thank you. So much for taking your time Cory to be on the show, really appreciate your work out there in Montana and keep up the good work. Our guest today has been Cory Elliot, member of local 129 and Council staff. The threat of candidates that support right to work in this coming election has been identified, right to work and have real consequences and our ability to provide for ourselves and our families. vote in this coming election and sport those candidates that have your back, and let's kick right to work out of our house. And if you're a listener right now and you're at home and you still haven't got your ballot filled out, a great way to look at those candidates that are endorsing the working middle class in this country is to go to nw carpenters.org. I'll post this in the show notes. And you'll see our regional councils, endorsements of candidates that truly value and appreciate you and your family's ability to earn a living a fair wage in this country. It's very important that you utilize the resources in front of you to make the smart choice and again, support the candidates that support you