2.1 Million SEIU Members Endorse President Obama In 2012

By SEIU

While bleak job growth plagues working families across the country, the Latino community continues to suffer disproportionately from unemployment with a devastating 11.4 percent rate of joblessness. By failing to pass President Obama’s jobs act, right-wing Republicans confirmed that they are committed to protecting corporate profits instead of working to create a better future for all Americans, including Latinos. The President’s jobs act proposed critical investments in infrastructure that would have led to job growth in construction, an industry where Latino workers are highly represented.

The 2.1 million members of the Service Employees Union (SEIU) share the President’s vision to create good jobs now and voted last night to endorse President Barack Obama for re-election in 2012.

“President Obama shares our vision of a nation that invests in good jobs here at home, a country where everyone pays their fair share, where access to health care preserved, and where there is a pathway to citizenship for every immigrant worker,” said SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry. “It’s a vision that says: Our country does better when we all do better.”

Today’s announcement culminates a six month conversation among SEIU members and leadership that evaluated the candidates, identified members’ priorities, and ultimately led to a final endorsement.

As the largest union of Latino workers, SEIU is committed to ensuring that the Latino community is not only at the decision making table, but that their voices are heard loud and clear above the divisive anti-Latino rhetoric that has derailed lawmakers from confronting our country’s economic challenges. The endorsement is part of a broader “99 percent strategy” to create good jobs now; end devastating cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and other critical programs; require everyone to pay their fair share in taxes; and create a fair path to citizenship for immigrant workers.

“The Republican candidates have an anti-worker and an anti-Latino agenda,” said Maria Yolanda Florian Arriaga, a personal care giver from Nevada. “They demonize immigrants who are working hard every day to make this country stronger. President Obama has fought for Latino priorities like healthcare, jobs, and education.”

With the endorsement, SEIU is committing to a robust campaign to engage SEIU members and their families and friends as well as the general public in the fight to re-elect President Obama. This campaign will include direct voter contact and field operations such as phone banks, door-to-door canvassing, and increased COPE, or Political Action Committee, fundraising.

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