For Immediate Release

Sunday, September 4, 2022

Contact Person: Chris Robinson

267-977-0570, [email protected]  

PA Green Party Candidates, Unions Can Build Working Class Unity

On Labor Day 2022, Green Party candidates for PA Governor and Lt. Governor recognized the importance of organized labor in moving forward our Commonwealth. Green Party candidate for PA Governor, Christina "PK" DiGiulio (Chester County) said, “I am inspired to see a new generation of workers forming labor unions to elevate and protect their workforce.”

DiGiulio said she liked the statement made by her counterpart Paul Glover, who received 27,792 votes as a Green for PA Governor in 2018. At the time, Glover had said, “As I see it, unions should demand greater ownership, not just greater wages. This means ownership of factories and banks and farms. As we build such labor institutions, workers will escape middle class treadmills . . . .  These ultimate unions will empower workers as owners of co-operative enterprises whose purpose is to meet basic needs while replenishing the earth.”

Green Party candidate Michael Bagdes-Canning (Butler) for PA Lt. Governor, expanded upon this thought, saying, “Our economy is set up to keep us fighting against each other rather than for each other. The same forces keeping us as wage slaves are also destroying the very climate we depend on for survival, pitting us against each other – using race, gender, immigration status, and our zip codes to divide us. When we in the working class unite, that will all change.”

“That’s what inspired me about the history of our labor movement,” continued Bagdes-Canning. “Workers organizing in unions changed the face of the workplace and beyond. Those workers organized across the differences that divided them and brought workers together to fight for radical change.”

The Green Party Platform says, “The Green Party supports the irreducible right of working people, without hindrance, to form a union and to bargain collectively with their employer. This right was guaranteed under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. We support the right of workers, without penalty, to inform other workers on the premises of a union being formed. This includes advertising and recruiting.”

To join the DiGiulio Campaign for PA Governor and the Bagdes-Canning Campaign for PA Lt. Governor, please sign up here, https://www.greenslate2022.com/volunteer. To contribute to their Campaign, please visit, https://www.greenslate2022.com/donate. 

For more information, please see:
Green Party Platform, GPUS, II Social Justice, G. Labor; https://www.gp.org/social_justice/#sjLabor 

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Michael Bagdes-Canning

for

PA Lieutenant Governor

For Immediate Release

Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Contact Person: Michael Bagdes-Canning

724-431-8560, [email protected] 

BREAKING: Green Party Candidate Announces Bid For Lieutenant Governor

Michael Bagdes-Canning announced that he will seek the nomination of the Green Party of Pennsylvania (GPPA, www.gpofpa.org) for the office of Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania.

Bagdes-Canning is a husband, father, and grandfather living in Cherry Valley Borough, Butler County, where he has held elected office for 33 years. He is currently Mayor. He is a retired teacher. Bagdes-Canning spent almost 36 years in the classroom, the last 29 teaching delinquent and dependent boys. He was a union member throughout his working life, serving as president, vice president, and building representative in his local. Since his retirement, Bagdes-Canning has been an organizer in the fracking / climate fight locally, statewide, and on the national level. He serves on the board of several community organizations and is a cofounder of Marcellus Outreach Butler (Butler County), a cofounder of the Better Path Coalition (PA), and works with Beyond Extreme Energy (national).

In the latest United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, scientists said the planet is overheating and that exceeding 1.5 degrees Celcius, which appears likely on the current trajectory, would have devastating effects, from harming food production to further intensifying wildfires.

“After reading the most recent IPCC Report and hearing the totally inadequate response from our local, state, and national leaders to its findings, I could no longer sit by. Using the invasion of Ukraine as a pretext for more drilling, more pipes, and more export facilities is madness,” said Bagdes-Canning. “We can’t afford that kind of misleadership.”

Bagdes-Canning is also running to end corruption. “Our political system isn’t broken. It functions exactly the way the two corporate parties and the 1% want it to. Our government is for sale to the highest bidder.”

Bagdes-Canning has called for a gift ban, an end to the per diem, and an end to partisan gerrymandering. “These are highly popular reforms, but neither party has acted on them. Why would they? Both parties collude with the 1% to run things. That’s why politicians serve the people who  bribe them and not the people who elect them.”

Bagdes-Canning said he will work with other Greens seeking office. “Our plans will reflect the interests of the poor and working class of Pennsylvania. I’m thrilled to be running with fighters. The people of Pennsylvania deserve a government that serves them, not the rich.”

If you would like to join Michael Bagdes-Canning’s campaign for PA Lt. Governor, please contact 724-431-8560, [email protected]. 

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