Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I am Val Hoyle, and I represent the central and south coasts of Oregon. I am a proud third-generation union member with a background in sales and international trade, and I came to Congress to fight for working people. My family's path to the middle class was made possible because of the labor movement. My grandfather emigrated from Ireland and worked as a union laborer building bridges. It was hard work in unsafe conditions. Those conditions are significantly better because of the building trades unions. My father was a firefighter and became president of his union to fight for better wages and safer working conditions. The contract that he and his team negotiated while management tried and failed to break his spirit took his members from poverty wages to a family-wage job. IAFF Local 789 is still working under that contract 40 years later. Mr. Speaker, I grew up going to union halls and picket lines and with my father fighting to elect proworker candidates. Naturally, I became a member of UNITE HERE Local 26 as a union waitress during the AIDS crisis, where fellow union members had the dignity of healthcare and death benefits when they needed them because we belonged to a union. I am proud to say that my son is a Teamster.…”