Resounding Rebuke on Era of MAGA is ‘Labor’s Revenge’; Catapults Working-People Champions to Power Across U.S.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The 600,000-member IAM Union (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers) joins working people across America in celebrating the record-shattering victories of labor-champion candidates who won office up and down the ballot across the United States Tuesday night.
In the largest electoral swing in a generation, the American people rose up — rejecting billionaires and their attempts to buy the election. Instead, they elected to flip the U.S. Senate and House, as well as gubernatorial and state legislative control across the country.
“Workers vs. billionaires—that was the choice, and voters chose economic change. For more than 50 years, working people have watched their voices and power pushed aside. Too often, our political and economic system has served the wealthy few, not the people who keep this country running,” said IAM Union International President Brian Bryant. “This isn’t left versus right or Democrat versus Republican—it’s the top versus the rest of us. While extremists push divisive cultural issues to turn us against one another, working people are focused on kitchen-table concerns: the cost of groceries, health care, retirement security and dignity on the job. These victories show what we can accomplish when we stand together. They make clear that we need a system that works for workers—with lower costs, secure retirement and dignity on the job. The mandate is clear: put working people first.”
The victories come with an exclamation mark, as IAM Union mobilized to elect working people up and down the ballot across the nation, activating a large and active membership with vested stakes in a wide range of sectors, and diverse partisan affiliation. The mobilizations included in-person worksite meetings with thousands of battleground-state members held in a two-month rolling blitz of IAM Union member worksites in 15 states.
The effort, coined the IAM Union Workers vs. Billionaires Tour, included an exhaustive canvassing program of member-to-member house calls, which resulted in tens of thousands of IAM Union members having their doors at home contacted in September and October.
Running the largest midterm election mobilization in its history this cycle paid dividends for the union, including successfully re-electing aircraft mechanic, military veteran, and IAM Union member Taylor Rehmet back to the Texas State Senate for the second time this year, when he made national headlines by flipping a Trump + 17 seat by double digits.
- “The IAM Union celebrates and applauds the victory of IAM Union leader, veteran, airforce mechanic, and working-class Texan Taylor Rehmet on his second election to the Texas Senate in one year. Taylor is the type of working class champion we need; he’s one of our own and will continue to serve the people of North Texas with integrity, loyalty and leadership.” – IAM Union International President Brian Bryant
It also resulted in the successful election of National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE-IAM) member Sam Forstag to the U.S. House, after he flipped Montana’s first congressional district by running a worker-powered, barnstorming campaign. Congressman-elect Forstag is deeply connected to his union; his experience organizing non-union Forest Service workers as they fought back against massive Trump cuts to federal worker funding in 2020 is what sparked him to step back from day-to-day work as wildfire smoke jumper, and focus on taking on the people in Washington, D.C. who voted for those cuts.
- “The IAM Union applauds the victory in Montana’s first congressional district, where NFFE-IAM Union member and wildfire smoke jumper Sam Forstag successfully won his election to Congress. Sam is a compassionate, dedicated, and heroic leader, whose life experience as a working-class Montanan is similar to so many Americans across the country. Voters chose change, and change is coming.” – IAM Union International President Brian Bryant
The IAM Union (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers) is one of North America’s largest and most diverse industrial trade unions, representing approximately 600,000 active and retired members in the aerospace, defense, airlines, shipbuilding, railroad, transit, healthcare, automotive, and other industries across the United States and Canada.
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