Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1124770
58 CINEMONTAGE / Q2 2019 compiled by Jeff Burman P residential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) announced in early April that if elected, he would ban so-called right-to-work laws. Slightly more than half of US states currently have laws on the books banning unions from negotiating contracts that require all members who benefit from a union contract to pay dues. Sanders also reminded Wisconsin voters that unions matter. In April, he referred to the legal changes championed by former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who was defeated for re-election in November. "These guys want to return us to the 1920s, when working people had virtually no rights to organize or to earn a decent living," explained Sanders, who argued, "There are a lot of folks out there who say, 'It doesn't impact me, I'm not a union guy, I'm not a teacher, I'm not a civil servant.' Let me tell you how it does matter to you. Wages are going down in this country for everybody. When you destroy unions there will be no standard at all, nobody left to negotiate decent jobs for the middle class." He also distanced himself from the pack of other 2020 candidates in late March by refusing to support House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-San Francisco) call to incrementally strengthen the Affordable Care Act, according to Sydney Ember in The New York Times. "The incremental reform that I support is phasing in 'Medicare for all,'" he said. Sanders further distinguished himself by standing LABOR MAT TERS Bernie Would Ban Anti-Union Laws Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders talks to striking research and technical workers at a rally at UCLA in March. Photo by Richard Vogel/ Associated Press