Jobs, Speed Matters Among Key Issues CWA Members Raise on Capitol Hill

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is greeted by cheers of "Best Speaker Ever!"

Busloads of CWA members were on Capitol Hill for CWA's Lobby Day, holding more than 140 meetings with members of Congress and staff on jobs, bargaining rights for public safety officers and high-speed broadband access for all Americans.

CWA members who visited Senate offices also raised the critical issue of Senate rule changes to end legislative gridlock that has blocked legislation to help working families.

They got fired up for the visits by an early morning speech by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who said CWA's exhaustive work on health care reform proves what can be accomplished by building coalitions and never giving up.

Pelosi described the Democrats' agenda to rebuild American manufacturing, including ending tax breaks for companies that move jobs offshore, pointing out that more jobs already have been created under the Obama administration than had been created during the entire eight-year Bush administration, when 4.6 million manufacturing jobs disappeared.

The Bush era left America "with a deep financial crisis, a deep recession, and deep deficits. Republican members of Congress are signing pledges to protect tax breaks for companies that ship American jobs overseas and other tax breaks for the rich. Democrats are standing up for the middle class - and we are not going back," Pelosi said.

Watch Pelosi's address here.