NORTH KINGSVILLE — U.S Senator Sherrod Brown spoke at the Laborers International Union of North America Local 245 union hall on Sunday afternoon, and told stories about how how unions had impacted his family and Ohioans.
Brown, a Democrat spent time talking to each of the attendees before addressing the group. He shared a trio of stories about how unions have improved people’s lives, including a story about how his wife, Connie Schultz, received extensive healthcare thanks to her father’s union membership.
“I’m the most pro-union guy in the Senate, bar none,” Brown said.
In an interview afterward, Brown spoke about the importance of the U.S. Coast Guard station, and his lobbying of the Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security to have the station staffed.
“It’s important because the lives it saves and the jobs it creates,” he said.
In July, Brown sent a letter to the head of the Coast Guard and the Secretary of Homeland Security, asking them to reopen the Ashtabula Coast Guard station after a weekend when 14 people needed to be rescued from Lake Erie. The Coast Guard had previously announced they would not be staffing the station during the summer, as had been their practice.
Soon after the letter was sent, the station started being staffed on the weekends.
“We’re going to keep at it, I don’t care who the president is, we’re going to fight to keep it open, because it matters to this community,” Brown said.
He also touted legislation he supported which saved pensions for more than 100,000 people in Ohio, and the PACT Act, which ensured veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxic materials were eligible for VA benefits.
“Already, 40,000 Ohioans have gotten care from [the PACT Act],” Brown said.
Brown said he has personally done 40 round-table events to educate veterans about the benefits they may be eligible for under the act.
“A lot of veterans will say, ‘I’m not very sick, I don’t want to take from some other veteran,’ well, they’re not,” he said. “The more people sign up, the more federal dollars come into the state to take care of people.”
Brown also spear-headed a bill recently signed into law that requires American flags purchased with tax dollars to be 100 percent made in America.
“We found out about five years ago that there’s a federal law that only half the materials in the American flag have to be made in America,” he said. “Somebody wants to buy a flag for a parade and just wave it, we’re not telling them they can’t, we’re not telling them anything. But if there’s taxpayer dollars, [the flags] should be 100 percent made here.”
Brown said it took four or five years to get the bill approved.
“I teamed up with a Republican senator from Maine named Susan Collins, and it took way longer than it should have, because there are still lobbyists wanting to be able to outsource jobs, because they make more money,” he said. “This took longer than it should have, but it’s passed. President [Joe] Biden signed it two weeks ago. So starting six months from now, every flag, wherever there’s taxpayer dollars involved, it has to be 100 percent American-made.”
Mike Kubacki, president of IBEW Local 673, said he finds most people are uneducated on who they are voting for, and Brown does quite a bit for workers.
“Trying to get people informed is the biggest thing, they don’t understand what exactly what he’s done,” Kubacki said.
Nicole Deligianis, business manager for Laborers International Union of North America Local 245, said Brown stands with all Ohio workers.
“We’re so proud that he can work on both sides of the aisle to get issues resolved for all working families in Ohio,” she said. “We are so blessed that his voting record always supports trade unionists and good jobs.”
Tom Robertson, past president of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 880, praised work Brown is doing to help improve Social Security.
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