As the fight for the Employee Free Choice Act progresses, more Maine Veterans are speaking out about the benefits they have experienced from unionization. Over and over again, Maine's veterans cite the benefits of unionization as an important factor to joining the middle class. Without the increased health benefits, wage increases, and job security union jobs provide, many Maine veterans say that they would never have attained the American dream for which they fought so bravely.

While the statistics on Employee Free Choice Act show how they improve quality of life for both workers and their communities, there is no substitute for firsthand experience. Veteran Michael Allen's editorial for the Bangor Daily News tells how unions helped him achieve his American dream:

After my honorable discharge in January 1998, I secured a part-time job at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft in South Berwick in February. My fiancee and I scraped by in our one-bedroom apartment in Saco; and we hoped I would become full-time someday.

I took the postal exam that summer and was offered a job here in Bangor. I earned $13 an hour with three weeks of annual leave and expanded health benefits because it was a union job and I was credited for my time in the service. My job security and increased earnings enabled my fiancee -- now my wife -- to attend college and get her degree in nursing. She works in the pediatric unit at Eastern Maine Medical Center and is a member of her union. Unions made a critical difference for our family joining the middle class.

Allen's story echoes the experiences of the combat veterans from Portland, who recently added their voices to the growing support for the Employee Free Choice Act. Like Allen, they too found steady jobs with the postal service, and feel lucky to have found jobs in a time where there was a larger union presence. Like the veterans from Portland, Allen sees his fellow veterans struggle, in our current economic times, to make ends meet:

Working hard used to give everyone a chance to improve their lives, but working families really have it rough right now. Our state is now at an 8.1 percent unemployment rate, and good-paying jobs leaving Maine are replaced by low-wage jobs with no benefits or job security.

The news for veterans is not any better. One out of five veterans who recently returned from tours of duty remains unemployed. One out of four veterans finding a job since leaving the service earns less than $21,840 a year....
In the Air Force we had a saying for complainers: "You signed your name on the dotted line." Each of us knew what we were doing when we joined up. If my signature was good enough to serve in our military, it should be good enough to be honored by my government and employer when I sign up to join a union.

By supporting Employee Free Choice, you are supporting other veterans like him who believe in the right of hard working citizens to get the life they want. The Employee Free Choice Act will help Maine rebuild the middle class by making it easier for hard-working patriots such as Michael Allen and others like him to find good jobs with real security, and hold our CEOS accountable.

Tell Senators Olympie Snowe And Susan Collins that you support Maine's veterans and the Employee Free Choice Act today:
http://action.seiu.org/page/speakout/veterans4choice

Change to Win Chair and SEIU International Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger, issued a statement today about the first meeting of the Middle Class Task Force today, chaired by Vice President Joe Biden, at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

The world is facing a historic opportunity to rebuild our global economy through investments in sustainable projects that will create new jobs, reduce our dependence on oil and protect our planet after decades of mismanagement.

Today's meeting underscores this Administrations' commitment to making sure American businesses and American workers are leaders in the industry of the future as our parents and grandparents led in the industries of the past. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed earlier this month includes a significant investment for projects both big and small that will rebuild our country and create the high-paying jobs of tomorrow.

These jobs represent a clear path to a stronger middle class and a stronger American economy that will benefit everyone. Change to Win unions across the country welcome this opportunity to continue working with communities and employers to find green ways to do millions of jobs that strengthen the foundation of this country. Today is an important step forward for businesses, communities and workers to come together to create a greener and stronger America.

The emerging green economy has the potential to make the American Dream a reality for America's workers. Change to Win unions have been at the forefront in helping create a green pathway to prosperity for working families.

• SEIU has committed to "bargaining green" across health care, public sector, and property service divisions, and the union's largest property service local has established an energy efficiency training program for building superintendents. The Nation recently highlighted the work SEIU 32BJ's Hector Norat, Superintendent of New York City's 1400 on Fifth for his work on the building's residential geothermal heating and cooling system, the largest in the country.
• Change to Win unions, including the Carpenters, LIUNA, and Teamsters, are partnering with cutting edge developer Gerding Edlen to build sustainable communities and create sustainable jobs.
• The Teamsters partnered with environmentalists to enact a landmark policy developed under Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's leadership to clean up toxic diesel emissions, improve working conditions for thousands of truck drivers, and pave the way for green growth in the nation's largest port complex.
• The Laborers have launched an initiative with the City of Newark and community-based organization GANE to train local residents in energy-efficiency retrofitting, building the workforce that will be needed to implement home weatherization on a large scale as promised by President Obama and funded in the Recovery Act.
• John Sarich, Resident Manager of New York City's William Beaver House and member of SEIU 32BJ, helped the management company and residents save money through significantly reducing their energy bills.

Following Friday's unveiling of the Middle Class Working Families Task Force, Obama delivered his most emphatic public remarks on his support for labor unions, saying, "I don't see organized labor as part of the problem...To me, it's part of the solution" and later, "You cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor union."

TPM Cafe's Nathan Newman drives the point home: "We have not had a President that so forthrightly identified the health of the nation with the health of the labor movement in many decades." Harold Meyerson also comments on the significance of President Obama's remarks over at American Prospect, saying,"But it's not just the historical accuracy of Obama's remarks that is notable, however much they represent a departure from the practice of his predecessor. What's really notable here is that Obama is publicly, as president, laying the basis for his case for the Employee Free Choice Act."

Here are a few more notable quotes from past Presidents who spoke of the true merit of labor for our nation's prosperity:

"Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed."

"If a man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar!"
- Abe Lincoln

"The American labor movement has consistently demonstrated its devotion to the public interest. It is, and has been, good for all America."
- John F. Kennedy

"If I were a worker in a factory the first thing I'd do is join a union."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Only a fool would try to deprive working men and working women of the right to join the union of their choice."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Every advance in this half-century: Social Security, civil rights, Medicare, aid to education... one after another- came with the support and leadership of American Labor."
- Jimmy Carter

Today President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden announced the creation of the Middle Class Task Force, which the White House blog says is "targeted at raising the living standards of middle-class, working families in America." SEIU Secretary-Treasurer and Change to Win Chair Anna Burger was in attendance at the event today, and issued this statement in support (read the whole thing here):

The mandate of the Middle Class Working Families Task Force sends a clear signal of a new government. A government that makes sure working Americans are treated with the dignity and respect at the work place that everyone deserves. A government that understands that rebuilding the American Dream and fixing the economy means creating more than just jobs, it means creating good jobs with a wage that can support a family, benefits that can keep them healthy, and a secure and dignified retirement.

The Obama administration has shown a strong commitment to the needs of working people, and reaffirmed that today. We need to restore the American Dream, and the White House is asking you to submit your own ideas to the Task Force. You can do so by visiting their new website, which has a front banner that declares, "A Strong Middle Class = A Strong America." We couldn't agree more.

There are a total of three additional pro-worker executive orders (on top of the Task Force creation) that Obama will sign, overturning Bush-era policies:

• Require federal contractors (holding contracts above $100,000) to post a balanced notice of their employees' rights under the National Labor Relations Act;
• Require federal service contractors providing services to federal buildings to offer a right of first refusal to the nonsupervisory, nonmanagerial employees of the predecessor contractor for positions for which they were qualified; and
• Prevent federal contractors from being reimbursed for expenditures intended to support or deter their employees' exercise of their right to form unions and engage in collective bargaining.

For more information, read Biden's Op-Ed in USA Today.

"There'd be no middle class without labor movement:" Watch Biden talk about the new task force in live coverage from the announcement earlier today:

Vice-President Joe Biden, chair of the new Middle Class Working Families Task Force, in an interview yesterday with CNBC: