Carly Melin won the first big union endorsements in the House 5B Special Election DFL primary. Her campaign released this today:
DFL candidate Carly Melin, vying for state representative, district 5B, wins the first major union endorsement in the election. AFSCME Council 5 & AFSCME Council 65 endorsed Carly Melin because of her strong stands in support of workers.Preble stated “We have a unique opportunity to support someone who shows a great understanding of the needs of the working people. She was raised in a union family and will fight for the working people of Minnesota. AFCSME Council 65 is proud to support DFLer Carly Melin. She thanked us for our support; we should be thanking her for being willing to run for public office.”
Melin added “We need to protect working people, services to seniors, and pensions for those who worked so hard to earn them. I am ready to do that. There is a Republican assault on unemployment benefits, training, and the rights to organize. The stakes are high and I am glad to have the working people behind me. I am proud to be the only labor endorsed candidate in the race.”
Dennis Frazier said, “I have worked with Carly’s mom for twenty five years. I have known Carly’s father, who served in the armed forces and as a public servant teaching at Hibbing Community and Technical College for twenty seven years. She was raised in a good union family and her parents taught her the importance of public service. She is one of us. Carly currently works as a public servant herself for the state. Her youth and energy will prove vital down at the capitol and for our communities.”
Steve Preble is currently the President of AFSCME Council 65. Dennis Frazier is currently the Vice President of AFSCME Council 5’s local 66. Dennis lives in 5B.
The press release also touted the support of former state senators Ron Dicklich and Jerry Janezich, whose support had already been announced last week.
I also come from a mining family, I worked at MinnTac and am anti-union. We have non-sustainable pension plan. I’d rather face the facts and fix it than vote folks in that say they’ll fight to keep as is, end up being Eveleth Tac and have the rug pulled out completely.
That is a heck of an endorsement for public office “I knew her mommy and daddy”
More pot shots from the anonymous crowd I see. Why don’t you sign your name to something bashing another person? Oh yeah, that would take some modicum of courageousness, something you clearly need a little more of.
I agree with anon’s. We can’t have a pension plan that has full benefits after 30 years. If you start when you’re 19, you retire when you’re 49, God willing live to be 85, you’ll collect longer than you paid in. The math just doesn’t work unless the workforce is growing by 10% annually. We know that is not happening. The 65 early retirement 67 full retirement has to be the norm for unions and government workers. Not a popular thing but necessary if we want the system to hold up. Unless you’re living in a cave, you’ve seen this early retirement play out overseas with riots and chaos when the countries (Greece) state the obvious, it’s not sustainable. K Edwards