Lehigh Valley union members are standing up for Democratic nominee Bob Brooks after Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Lehigh) attacked Brooks’ background as a labor leader at the Carbon County GOP Summer Picnic on Tuesday.
Brooks, a political newcomer, spent 20 years working as a firefighter in Bethlehem and is president of the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association, which represents more than 8,000 firefighters and first responders throughout the commonwealth. He’s now running to take Mackenzie’s seat in Congress.
“ Bob Brooks is a union leader, and he is somebody who is so beholden to those union policies and I should make a note, I don’t care if you’re union or non-union. Right?,” Mackenzie said in audio obtained by The Keystone.
He added, “ We want a level playing field. We want people to be able to compete. We want workers to be able to choose. That’s not what he wants. He wants things to be slanted in their favor.”
Meet the candidates: Ryan Mackenzie and Bob Brooks face off in PA-07
Shawn Smith and Ernest Williams, two United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 677 members who oversaw the endorsement process with the UAW’s political arm, were quick to defend Brooks in an interview with The Keystone.
“ I’ve spoken with Bob probably before he started his campaign and then many times since he started it. He, to me, seems like he’s more for the middle-class worker. I wouldn’t say he’s beholden to unions in any way, shape, or form,” said Smith, who works at the Mack Trucks plant in Macungie.
Smith added, “He has the backing of all the unions, but that just speaks to his character as far as supporting the middle class and wanting to do for working-class people.”
According to Smith, Mackenzie tried to use his experience as a lifelong politician to his benefit during his endorsement meeting.
“[Mackenzie] sits down and the first thing he says was, ‘Well, let me tell you guys, I’m a career politician.’ You just sat down with middle-class union workers and your first statement was, ‘I’m a career politician,’” Smith said.
He added, “ I think it was a spin to try and say Bob Brooks doesn’t have what it takes to be a politician. He doesn’t have the experience. He’s never had to do the voting. But that landed completely wrong in a room full of auto workers.”
Mackenzie’s campaign stated that the congressman supports both union and non-union workers, while “Brooks is only out for himself.”
“Congressman Mackenzie was specifically speaking to Bob Brooks’ offensive behavior as the head of unionized firefighters where he shockingly called volunteer firefighters ‘sh*tbags and scabs’ and received multiple pay raises as the union boss while cutting benefits for his own members,” Andres Weller, campaign manager for Mackenzie for Congress, said in a statement.
Labor leaders from across the commonwealth saidMackenzie’s legislative record painted a different picture than his campaign portrayed, as he has backed right-to-work laws, which undermine a union’s ability to organize workers, as a state lawmaker and blocked safety standards for public-sector workers.
“ [Union] members are going to be happy to see Bob Brooks if he manages to win this election because they’re going to see themselves there,” Williams, a shop steward at AmeriCold Logistics, said.
“ They’re gonna see somebody who understands their issues, who understands what they’re dealing with, what they’re going through. They’re gonna see somebody who’s basically a fighter.”
