More than 150 retired union members, representing thousands of seniors across Minnesota, are mobilizing to support pro-worker candidates in the 2002 elections. The mobilization was the chief focus of the sixth annual convention of the Minnesota State Retiree Council, AFL-CIO, Wednesday in Minneapolis.

The people elected in November will make critical decisions about Social Security, prescription drug coverage and other issues important to retirees, Council President Erv Neff told the gathering. Throughout the one-day session, council leadership signed up volunteers to help turn out senior voters and discussed ways to support candidates who have been endorsed by the AFL-CIO.

Ray Waldron, Minnesota AFL-CIO president, said the statistics show the senior vote is the crucial vote, because older people vote in higher percentages than any other age group.

"The seniors in this state will decide who will govern," Waldron said.

The Retiree Council gained an experienced, articulate member in Minnesota AFL-CIO President Emeritus Bernard Brommer, who retired last year. In a speech to the convention, he urged everyone to work hard to re-elect U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, saying Wellstone "is willing to fight with us whether it's on the street or in the halls of Congress."

Brommer said retirees need to look hard at the candidates' records on issues such as Social Security privatization, the protection of Medicare and prescription drug coverage for seniors - and ask whether they are beholden to corporations. "That's really what this election is all about . . . fairness and justice for average working people in this state and this nation," he said.

For more information

Visit the Retiree Council webpage: www.mnaflcio.org/gretirees.html