ProgressOhio

With gas topping four dollars a gallon nationally this week, and everything getting more expensive – from milk and bread to health care – even people who thought they were safe are feeling the pinch.

It's time to get involved in building a government that's accountable to the people, and an economy that works for all -- and labor is taking the lead. Steve Gliebe, a union worker at Cooper Tire & Rubber in Findlay, says, "My paycheck might be looking the same, but it's shrinking. I'm not saving any money – everything I make goes right back out."

Around the state of Ohio, as we see more and more people relying on food stamps or the charity of their neighbors to get by, it's clear that there is a serious problem. This hardship doesn't come out of thin air. We can trace it back to a Washington policy of coddling Big Oil – a policy that John McCain plans to continue if we make the grave mistake of electing him President. For example, he would give the top five biggest American oil companies $3.8 billion worth of tax breaks. His plan to suspend the gas tax has been unanimously declared intellectually bankrupt by economists, and it could cost our nation 300,000 highway construction jobs.

It's time to speak out against the backwards Bush-McCain ideology of government concern for corporations at the expense of citizens. It's time to demand a real plan for a better future, and some relief for working people struggling to make ends meet. To this end, union activists demonstrated in Columbus and Cincinnati yesterday and Sandusky today, and they'll continue to demonstrate across the state in the coming days. Keep your eye out for coverage of those events in the media and on this blog.

 Unless we all work together now to turn our country around, Steve says, "We're all going to be poor."