Joshua Cole
Joshua Cole was a candidate in Virginia's house race in 2017.[1]
Ending "Right to Work"
On Saturday January 16 2021, the Virginia Our Revolution organization sponsored an online kickoff meeting featuring progressive Democratic Party members of the General Assembly (Virginia’s state legislature) and labor leaders to get behind a Bill, House Bill 1755, in the House of Delegates, the lower house of the General Assembly. This bill would repeal Virginia’s longstanding “Right to Work” statute, which is seen by organized labor as a major obstacle to unionization in Virginia.
Last year, there was also an attempt to repeal “Right to Work” in Virginia, but it was blocked in the legislature by a combination of Republicans and conservative Democrats, the latter including Governor Ralph Northam. The argument for opposing the repeal was, as always, that abolishing right to work would cause companies to not to want to come to Virginia, and thus would “cost jobs.”
At the Saturday meeting, the chief sponsor of House Bill 1755, Delegate (state representative) Lee J. Carter , an openly declared socialist from Northern Virginia, provided an interesting history of “Right to Work” in the United States.
Two other Democratic co-sponsors of HB 1755 also spoke at the kickoff meeting. Delegate Joshua Cole, who represents the area of Fredericksburg and Stafford County in Northern Virginia, pointing out the relevance of the effort to repeal Right to Work to the upcoming Martin Luther King day holiday, stated that the “Black-white economic divide [in the United States] is as great as it was in 1968,” when King was murdered while supporting African-American sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Cole and other speakers explained that anti-labor measures are also anti-minority measures. Delegate Sally Hudson, who represents the city of Charlottesville and environs, also emphasized the racist roots of “Right to Work.”
Labor spoke out powerfully at the kickoff meeting. Joshua Armstead, Vice President of Unite-Here Local 23, which represents workers in Washington DC and Northern Virginia, Don Slaiman from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and Virginia Diamond, President of the AFL-CIO of Northern Virginia, all pledged their support to the bill. Speakers also included Larry Cohen, Chairman of Our Revolution, Sandra Klassen, Chair of Our Revolution-Northern Virginia, and Michelle Woolley, chair of the Coalition to Repeal Right to Work.
This year there are state elections in Virginia for governor, lieutenant governor, and all 100 seats in the House of Delegates. By Virginia law, Governor Northam cannot run for re-election and the issue of right to work is sure to be an issue in the campaign.
Meanwhile, supporters of repeal are circulating a petition to help drum up public support for HB 1755. [2]
Fredericksburg Canvass Launch w/ Eric Holder
Joshua Cole was listed as a sponsor of a "Fredericksburg Canvass Launch w/ Eric Holder" along with Qasim Rashid and Jess Foster dated 11/2/2019[3]:
2017 Virginia Delegate Candidates Endorse State Level Single Payer Health-Care
Joshua Cole was among the Virginia Delegate Candidates as announced during a press conference arranged by Lee J. Carter who endorse state-level single payer health-care.
Others listed: Flourette Ketner (D-7), Stephanie Cook (D-9), Angela Lynn (D-25), Joshua Cole (D-28), Morgan Goodman (D-55), Jamaal Johnston (D-60), Kimberly Anne Tucker (D-81), Steve Aycock (D-88), Steve McBride (D-9), Michele Edwards (D-20), Brent Finnegan (D-26), Lee J. Carter (D-50), Kellen Squire (D-58), Francis Stevens (D-65), David Rose-Carmack (D-83), Cori Johnson (D-97).
References
- ↑ http://www.aijustice.org/advocacy_and_litigation ADVOCACY & LITIGATION PROGRAMS, accessed September 29 2017
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ accessed October 30 2019