Milwaukee, WI – This week the AFL-CIO launched a digital campaign highlighting candidates’ positions on retirement security. A survey conducted by the AFL-CIO this summer revealed that retirement security is a top issue for 97 percent of union members. The digital campaign in Wisconsin includes a report card that compares Ron Johnson’s positions on retirement security against those of his opponent Mandela Barnes. The report card makes a clear contrast between the candidates.
“As we begin voting in this very important election, all Wisconsinites should be aware that their retirement benefits are on the ballot,” said Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Stephanie Bloomingdale. “In Mandela Barnes, we have an ally who is committed to protecting and expanding our Social Security and Medicare benefits, and controlling prescription drug prices,” Bloomingdale said. “And in Ron Johnson, we have something different, something dangerous,” she said. “Johnson clearly intends to cut the very benefits that Wisconsinites have earned and worked our whole lives for,” Bloomingdale said. “We all deserve dignity and security in our retirement, and Ron Johnson wants to rob us of just that,” she concluded.
“Ron Johnson has never been on the side of older people. He is chomping at the bit to gut the Social Security and Medicare benefits we’ve worked a lifetime to earn,” said Gary Mitchell, President of the Alliance for Retired Americans. “Johnson has called Social Security a ‘Ponzi Scheme’ and voted to raise the retirement age to 70. Wisconsin seniors literally cannot afford to send him back to Washington,” Mitchell said.
In addition to the digital campaign, the Wisconsin AFL-CIO has a massive voter contact campaign underway that is communicating these same candidate contrasts. Union volunteers and activists are talking to union members across the state at their workplaces, at their doors and via phone on the stakes in the election for current and future retirees.
