On the Campaign Front Lines
Al Rathsack, Hortonville, Wis.
USW Local 2-1822
Corporations Aren’t the Only Ones Who Count
For Al Rathsack of Hortonville, Wisconsin, the main issue this election year is obvious: it's corporate power. "They're trying to get rid of the middle class and go back to the way it was in the 1800s before organized labor came about," he says. "For me, that's a big problem. It affects my kids and grandkids directly."
Rathsack has been a maintenance worker at the Pacon Corporation in Appleton for 37 years. "We convert rolls of paper into the paper they use in the schools," he explains. "We make the paper kids write on and put up on display boards. We're the biggest converter of school paper in the nation."
Because he's in the paper industry in Wisconsin, Rathsack has seen first-hand what happens when corporations take American manufacturing jobs overseas. "Every time you read the paper here, there's 50 or 100 or 200 people losing their jobs," he says. "Kimberly-Clark just said that they're closing their big mill in Neenah. Luckily, my brother got into another plant of theirs, but I know a lady who worked there. Her husband just died last year. She has three kids. She'll have no health care and no job."
In Rathsack's view, a big part of the problem is health care costs. He notes that "every industrialized country in the world has free health care except the United States. Our company pays decent wages but they also have to pay for health care. They're at a competitive disadvantage right there – plus we can't compete against forced labor and prison labor."
Another part of the problem is the tax system. "K-C moves their business overseas and they get a tax break for it," Rathsack says. "The government says, 'Hey, move your plant overseas and you don't have to pay so much in taxes.'"
Rathsack is an active member of United Steel Workers Local 2-1822. For Labor 2006, he has handed out fliers to union members, attended rallies, and contributed to congressional candidate Steve Kagen. "We're trying to organize to get our members out to vote on election day, and if they know anyone who needs a ride to vote or absentee ballot, we'll be there," he notes. "Our contract expires December 1, so it's a busy time for us."
But the truth is that for him, politics is a year-round activity. He's involved in the USW's Rapid Response Program. "When we get notices about bills coming up in Madison or Washington that affect labor, we go through the mill and get a letter-writing campaign," he says. "Then we collect the letters and mail them in to elected officials and tell them how we'd like them to vote." He's also traveled with other USW members to Washington to lobby their representatives and senators.
Rathsack is experienced enough as a political volunteer that he's often seen how the right wing operates. "When they get down in the polls, the social issues like guns, abortion, gay marriage are their ace in the hole," he observes. "That's the thing that upsets me."
He adds, "Wisconsin is a big hunting state. The NRA is running a big ad against [incumbent Governor] Jim Doyle because he supposedly wants to take all the guns away. They throw that out there to get votes. How many times has gun control been brought up as an issue, but basic gun control never changes regardless of who's in office, and it won't change.
"They're voting on that, but the real issue here is that we have to stop treating corporations like they're the only ones that count in the United States."
