Sen Sanders hitches campaign to fights against GE and Verizon

On April 11, before he addressed close to 10,000 people at a college basketball arena in Buffalo (NY), Sen Bernie Sanders (I-VT) made a quick stop at a union hall. Local shop stewards with the Communications Workers of America had just sat down when the candidate walked in and hugged an organizer he'd known for years. He was there to endorse their planned strike.

"I know that going on strike is not something that’s easily done," Sen Sanders said. "I know there’s going to be a lot of pain involved. I want to thank you for standing up to the outrageous greed of Verizon and corporate America. When you do that, you’re not just standing up for your own members — you’re standing up for working people all over this country." Nearly 40,000 Verizon workers on the East Coast have planned a strike that begins April 13; Sen Sanders, who had been endorsed by the CWA, was once again hitching his campaign to a labor movement cause. He'd joined picket lines outside factories, addressed minimum-wage hike campaigners outside debates, and — multiple times — endorsed Verizon workers (part of the CWA) who were negotiating for a new contract. "What you are saying is that at a time when multinational corporations are making record profits, they should not be demanding cutbacks in workers’ health care, in workers’ pensions or workers’ wages," Sen Sanders said. "And they sure as hell should not be sending calling centers to the Philippines and other countries."