Eric Griego
Today, as we celebrate Labor Day, I express my sincere respect and admiration for the men and women of the labor movement who have worked tirelessly to protect all American workers’ dignity.
All workers in this country have benefited from efforts by unions to gain safe working conditions, fair treatment at work, a fair or at least minimum wage, and the right to collectively bargain. I stand proudly behind my record of fighting for workers and their families even when it got tough as a state senator, former Albuquerque city councilor and now as a Democratic candidate for Congress.
My values in public life come from my own experience as a poor kid growing up in a tough neighborhood and raised by a single parent. Because FDR, LBJ and other Democrats pushed for programs like Head Start, universal public education, civil rights, Pell Grants, and decent wages, I was able to succeed despite my humble beginnings.
To realize the American Dream, hard work is important, but not enough. Every kid and every family, not just the richest and the most powerful few, need to have the opportunity to succeed. That is why I am running for Congress and why I support the labor movement.
Fighting for workers
In 2004-05, I worked closely with then-City Councilor Martin Heinrich and other pro-worker members of the Albuquerque City Council to increase the minimum wage so that the city would become a better place to work and make a living. Unfortunately, Republicans and corporate lobbyists opposed the increase, and ultimately we had to settle for a much smaller increase that was not indexed to inflation.
In 2002, I led the fight in the Albuquerque City Council against efforts to solve a short-term budget crisis by firing nearly 400 employees. I stood shoulder-to-shoulder in solidarity with our workers and the public employee unions to save most of the jobs, fend off an aggressive push to fire workers, cut their benefits and freeze their wages.
In the State Senate, I led efforts to protect collective bargaining for workers involved in public projects and to make sure prevailing wage laws were not undermined. I was also one of only a few state senators who fought the governor, Republicans, and sadly, even some of our own Democratic members, when they pushed numerous proposals that would have reduced and undermined public pensions that exist to provide retirement with dignity for our public servants.
And I stood in solidarity with AFSCME, AFT, IAFF and others during the legislative session to fight to protect our teachers, firefighters, nurses and other public employees from Republican and conservative Democratic efforts to cut their jobs, wages and benefits.
I am proud to be endorsed locally and nationally by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and by most of the strongest pro-worker elected officials in the state, including Sens. Jerry Ortiz Y Pino and Cisco McSorley, Reps. Miguel Garcia and Eleanor Chavez (the chair and vice-chair of the House Labor Committee), and City Councilors Ike Benton and Rey Garduno.
I’ll keep doing what I’ve always done
Unfortunately, too many Democrats cannot be trusted to support our middle class and working families, let alone to be on the frontlines leading the vanguard when the fighting gets tough, to protect workers and jobs against powerful anti-worker forces and cynical conservatives. There are huge corporate and political interests working to preserve power and money for the rich.
When I’m in Congress, I will take on the elites to pass an economic plan and create jobs for the middle class, not the corporate few. I’ll win these fights just as I have in Albuquerque and also work hard to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
I will keep doing what I have always done: fight for those who made our country great – the working men and women of America.
Griego, a Democrat, is a candidate for New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District seat in Congress.