*URGENT: Legislative Action Needed on Liquor Privatization*
House Bill 790, pushed by Governor Corbett and sponsored by Majority Leader Mike Turzai, passed out of Committee yesterday. HB 790 would privatize the liquor states and end the valuable asset that generates more than $500 million dollars a year for Pennsylvania. Privatizing would mean a loss of that revenue and the potential for public higher education appropriations to be affected with this budget gap. Privatizing also means a loss of 5,000 middle class jobs, many of them held by our union friends in the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776 (UFCW).
The plan will likely be voted upon on Thursday, possibly Wednesday, so we are asking our membership to act now!
Click here to read the CLEAR Coalition’s letter to all House Members that President Hicks has signed onto.
IMPORTANT AND URGENT: Send an email message to your lawmakers in Harrisburg now and tell them you don’t trust Corbett’s liquor privatization plan: The AFL-CIO’s action page provides an email template that will automatically go to your legislators when you type in your address. We encourage you to personalize the template before sending.
To assist in personalizing the message, please reference the UFCW toolkit and a fact sheet on the PA Liquor Control Board and its Wine and Spirits Stores.
While we oppose HB 790, we understand that many of our members are interested in modernizing the liquor store. Legislation will soon be introduced in the Senate that will address consumer concerns while protecting these middle class jobs and help move this revenue-generating asset into the future.
Senator Ferlo’s proposal will provide reforms that will allow the stores to operate at peak performance, reform beer sales and the quantities that may be purchased, improve store convenience and provide direct shipment of wine.