By YueWon Lee, Iowa City
The statements hereafter are my own and do not represent my workplace nor the union I am a part of.
Oliver Weilein is the pro-labor working class councilor that Iowa City needs. As a City employee and member of AFSCME Local 183, I know that Iowa City puts in the effort to give all its residents a voice. As a POC, I believe it makes this city one of the best places to live in Iowa, but Iowa City woefully lacks representation from “working class” voices. How can the city council represent my interests and those of the working people of the city when the majority of them are not the same class as I? Do our councilors know what a tenant and a wage worker have to go through, or the struggles of someone who has to take the bus as their primary means of transit? Of course we can’t expect each of them to know the struggles of all of us. What I do expect is a voice on the council that can represent me.
I know Oliver, and I am familiar with his line of work. Being a direct services provider is one of the most difficult jobs out there. DSPs are overworked, underpaid and often mistreated, as are many others in the healthcare field. But those who stay as Oliver has, do so because of the empathy and heart they have for others. Oliver is one of the most principled people that I know. Oliver knows how to walk the walk. There are few people in this city that I look towards as a moral compass and Oliver is one of those people. That is who I want on the city council, someone who can be compassionate and empathetic but at the same time is unyielding in their dedication and beliefs.
I want to elect someone who is living the struggle of working folks. A councilor who, like many of us, must rely on their coworker to get time off, who commiserates with their coworkers about work conditions or the incompetency of their managers and bosses. I want a councilor I know who will always side with the interests of the working people of this city. These are the views and experiences that Iowa City Council is lacking and I trust Oliver will have the best interest of the working class at the forefront of his term as city councilor.
Iowa City deserves a councilor who will stand with working folks, from the bus stop to the leasing office, from the negotiation table to the picket line.
