FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, February 4, 2016

SILVER SPRING, MD – Local 400 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) announced today its endorsement of Senator Jamie Raskin in his campaign for Maryland’s 8th Congressional District.

Mark Federici, President of UFCW Local 400, issued the following statement regarding the endorsement:

“In Annapolis, Senator Raskin has consistently been there for our members when they’ve needed him most. It was his fervent leadership as Chairman of Montgomery County’s Senate delegation that helped secure the votes needed to increase the minimum wage. Mr. Raskin is a uniquely effective legislator. I was not surprised to learn recently that he helped to pass more than 100 bills into law under his tenure. We look forward to Mr. Raskin bringing his much-needed effectiveness and enthusiasm to Congress.”

The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 represents 12,400 members in Maryland working in the retail food, health care, retail department store, food processing, service and other industries, and 35,000 total members across Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.

“I am excited to receive UFCW Local 400’s endorsement in this race. This is a great progressive union and a champion of Maryland’s hard-working and stressed-out workers. I look forward to working with more than ten thousand UFCW Local 400 members in Maryland – grocery workers, food service workers, and retail workers – not only to win this exciting campaign but to fight in Congress for an economy that works for working people,” said Senator Raskin. “As a champion of the labor movement and the right to organize, I am proud to have UFCW Local 400 members on my side as we bring progressive grassroots activism to Congress to challenge the big money system.”

UFCW Local 400 joins the Machinists and Aerospace Workers and OPEIU Local 2 as early union supporters. The Raskin campaign has also earned the support of the Sierra Club, the 72-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America, Progressive Democrats of America and more than 60 Democratic elected officials, including the state’s top Democrat, Attorney General Brian Frosh, Congressman John Sarbanes from the neighboring district, Congressman John Conyers who is the longest serving member of the US House and the co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus, Congressman Mark Takano, State Senators Rich Madaleno, Susan Lee, Karen Montgomery and Ron Young, Delegate Karen Lewis Young, and dozens of other state and local officials.

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