The news about the state of our republic is very bad. Labor unions have been under assault for decades, crushed by the union-busting Taft-Hartley Act and assaulted by corporate union-busters. Respect for working people is at an all-time low. Pension plans are under assault, health insurance programs disappearing, wages are being cut. Millions of workers have been thrown out of their jobs as factories close because corporations send jobs overseas and in early 2008 unemployment is rising. Republicans and Democrats pass trade agreements that benefit multi-national corporations and destroy U. S. jobs. Workers real wages have gone down since the early 1970s. Congress dithers about raising the "minimum wage" when what the country needs are living wages. Prices continue to climb with food and energy leading the way. Oil at $100 a barrel and gas prices consistently over $3 per gallon constitute a hidden war tax. Wall Street, awash with dirty money and consumed by greed, has sucked the life out of the housing market, shattering the economy, which in early 2008 is in recession, and millions of people are loosing their homes. Congress cuts taxes for the wealthiest shifting the tax burden from wealth to wages. Forty-seven million workers have no health insurance and 40 million more are under-insured. Millions of workers are one illness away from financial ruin.

Gary Murrell comes from a family of union organizers. His grandmother organized hotel workers in Portland, Oregon in the 1930s and his grandfather, a life-long Teamster, was President of the Portland Central Labor Council and a labor member of state senate during that tumultuous decade. Dr. Murrell has been a union member throughout his life. He joined the Boilermaker's union when working in a factory right out of high school. During his career as an actor he belonged to Actors Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild, and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Most recently he belonged to the Washington Education Association for three years and was a founding member of the Grays Harbor College Federation of Teachers, Local 4984, in 1996. He has three times served as president of his local and led the local in its first year through negotiations for their first contract. Grays Harbor College was the last community college in the state system to have a negotiated contract.

Forgotten by Norm Dicks, who is more interested in banking campaign contributions from his corporate buddies for whom he put earmarks in the budget, workers on the Olympic Peninsula need a member of Congress who represents them. Gary Murrell will move aggressively in Congress to change the rules in the Olympic National Forest to implement a program for jobs that support Restoration Forestry. Creating jobs, and opening up a too-crowded forest, Restoration Forestry will also allow the area to establish a flourishing cellulosic ethanol program as an alternative to corn ethanol to supply growing power needs in the Northwest. Some members of Congress are already working on a cellulosic ethanol program for their districts, like a Georgia Congressman who brought $70 million to his district to encourage the growth of the program, but not Norm Dicks. Dicks is much too busy funding weapons programs.

With the poverty rate up in every county in the 6th District, workers need some relief. [Percent of people in poverty as of 2005: Clallam, 12.8%; Grays Harbor, 17.2%; Jefferson, 11.5%; Kitsap, 9%; Mason, 14.5%; Pierce, 11.3%.] As a member of Congress, Gary Murrell would introduce legislation to repeal the union-killing Taft Hartley Act. Recent studies show that more than 50% of working people say they would be interested in joining a labor union but only 12% of American workers are unionized. Often, workers who would like to join a labor union are too frightened to make their feelings known, fearing management retaliation. Passed by a Republican Congress, with the help of Democrats, The Taft-Hartley Act rescinded many of the bedrock components of the 1935 Wagner Act and defanged the labor movement. The National Labor Relations Act would be rewritten to remove the several anti-labor sections. The National Labor Relations Board would be staffed by pro-labor appointees. Repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act and rewriting the NLRA would ensure more successful national union membership drives and more workers could realize their wish to join a union.

Norm Dicks has voted for every job-killing trade agreement. If we are to reenergize the labor movement based on workers right to organize, to bargain collectively, to strike and to earn decent, living wages and benefits, we must withdraw from the disastrous trade agreements enacted by Democrats in the 1990s - - NAFTA, WTO, CAFTA, the new Peru Agreement and all the other trade agreements so detrimental to the lives of working people both at home and abroad. As a member of Congress, Gary Murrell would help initiate and/or support the withdrawal of the United States from all the trade agreements and only vote for bilateral trade agreements that secured workers' rights and protected the environment.

To restore the infrastructure of the United States and provide millions of good, family-wage jobs, as a member of Congress Gary Murrell would support Congressman Dennis Kucinich's call to establish a new public works program based on the Works Progress Administration (WPA) that provided work for millions during the Roosevelt administration. A Works Green Administration (WGA) would also be established, joining a new Works Program Administration with the Environmental Protection Agency. The WGA legislation would strip billions in corporate welfare for the oil, coal, gas, and nuclear industries and divert that money to industries that are focused on wind, sun, and geothermal projects with their accompanying jobs.