We don’t know about you, but we’re getting pretty pissed off at being taken for granted.

Mentions of workers, organized labor, unions and union causes were few and very far between in the two-night, 20-person Democratic Party-sponsored debates between presidential contenders.

Bernie Sanders, Jay Inslee, Bill de Blasio and a passing reference from Cory Booker. That’s it.

The debates were not the first time Democrats and progressives dissed unions, but having our causes, our goals, our agenda routinely ignored is really aggravating. It was aggravating enough four years ago, let us remind the Democrats, that union defections in the key Great Lakes states of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin helped elect anti-worker Republican Donald Trump.

So here’s a message to take to the Democrats, assuming few Republicans really want to stick up for workers:

We provide the people who hit the hustings on your behalf. We provide, through voluntary campaign contributions, the money that makes your presidential, gubernatorial, congressional and state legislative drives go. And most importantly, we provide votes. We elect you.  

So it’s time to listen to us, to advocate for our causes, to stick up for us, to say the word “union,” proudly. If you don’t, you’ll see a rerun of 1994, when we stayed home because Democratic President Clinton kowtowed to the corporate elite and the 1% and pushed through NAFTA. We’re tired of being shunted to the side. 

Press Associates, Inc. (PAI)