AFL-CIO Endorses Chris Smith for reelection

Congressman Chris Smith chats with members of the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 9 after receiving the endorsement of the NJ Building and Trades Council

Risking the wrath of the hate group known as District 4 Coalition for Change, the AFL-CIO, America’s largest federation of labor unions, endorsed Republican Congressman Chris Smith for reelection in New Jersey’s 4th Congressional District.

The New Jersey AFL-CIO represents 1,000 labor unions across the state.

“For me, the cause of working families and the critical importance of unions in the never-ending fight for fair wages and benefits, workplace protections and other important terms of employment achieved through collective bargaining is a core conviction,” Smith said. “My father was a teamster and instilled in me the strong belief that without unions working families would be marginalized, divided and exploited. Unions even the playing field and make both the workplace and America itself more just and fair,” he said.

“This year’s endorsed candidates understand the incredible stress that working families are under,” New Jersey AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech said of the slate of endorsed candidates that includes Smith. “They will work tirelessly so that New Jersey’s middle class benefits from the restoration of jobs and creation of new ones in safe workplaces, protected from infection and injury,” he added.

“I am grateful to New Jersey’s working men and women who deliver a wide range of products and services to our citizens and support our communities through their diligent work and local activities,” Smith continued. “I am also thankful for the leadership and insight provided by President Charlie Wowkanech. Charlie and Secretary-Treasurer Laurel Brennan bring substance and integrity to the issues they take on, and I am proud to have their backing and the AFL-CIO rank-and-file members as part of my broad-based, grassroots reelection campaign,” he said.

Congressman Smith faces Democrat Stephanie Schmid, an attorney who represented executives from Transocean in their criminal trial for the Deepwater Horizon explosion that caused billions in damage to the Gulf Coast.