Following are excerpts of comments by various speakers at the Oct. 18 Employee Free Choice rally.

Rich Trumka secretary treasurer of AFL-CIO -

"I have some bad news for you today. It's bad news for the Chamber of Commerce, it's bad news for the Business Roundtable, it's god-awful news for the ABC - because the news is on Nov. 4 working people in Michigan are going to send a progressive new leader to Washington.

"A new leaders who believes working people ought to have a seat at the table. A new leader who believes in collective bargaining. A new leader who believes the NLRB ought to be in the business of union building, not union busting.

"A new leader who understands in his heart is that what's wrong with the American labor movement is that we're not too strong, is that we're not strong enough. Ladies and gentlemen the name of that leader is Barack Obama.

"It's been eight long miserable years of the most anti-labor president of our generation. And we have the chance to elect the most pro-labor president of our time. Barack Obama understands that it was unions who built the American middle class, and given a chance it will be the union movement that rebuilds the middle class.

"Passing the Employee Free Choice Act isn't just one of our priorities. The truth is, it is our only priority. It has to be. It has to be because business fire workers in one out of every four organizing drives. It is, because just because someone in that NLRB office says an employer has to sit down and bargain, there's only a one in three chance they'll come to an agreement. That may be the idea of how corporate America thinks our country should be, but it sure is hell isn't our idea of what the country should be.

"John McCain is not only against the right to organize, he's for a national right to work law that could eliminate our unions entirely. He fought against Davis-Bacon, he fought against minimum wage, he fought against prevailing wage. And I guess it goes without saying that he's not shy about crossing picket lines.

"This is what he said to the Oklahoma state legislature about collective bargaining: 'we must not let good workers be crippled by the fine print of the latest union contract.'

"I know the opinion polls say we're looking pretty good in Michigan. I also know that four years ago the polls said at this time that John Kerry was going to defeat George Bush. That's why we can't let our guard down for a minute.

"You need to let everyone you know, know one thing: a union member voting for John McCain is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders. Our members need to know that if they want the right to bargain for good wages, if they want the right to bargain for good health care for themselves and their family, if they want the right to the dignity and the respect that can only come with a strong union contract, there's only one candidate who cares about working people and who believes that strong unions have to be part of our country's future, there's only one candidate who is going to sign the Employee Free Choice Act, and that is Barack Obama.

"We've been beaten around pushed around long enough. It's time we started pushing back. Pushing back for our jobs. Pushing back for our families. We are the American labor movement. We built this country and it's time we took it back."

AFL-CIO Building Trades Department President Mark Ayers -

"You already know it. People here get it. Cleveland gets it. Yesterday we were in Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh gets it. This is the best crowd we've seen yet.

"In the last debate John McCain accused Senator Obama of starting a class war. I'll tell ya, the class war started 30 years ago with Ronald Reagan, and continued with Bush 1, Bush 2, and now Bush 3 - John McCain. Barack Obama will end the class war that he didn't start.

"And he'll end it by signing the Employee Free Choice Act if we put in him the White House. If we do our job he'll do his.

"If John McCain is elected president of the U.S., he is going to protect Smith Barney on Wall Street. If Barack Obama becomes our president he will protect Barney Smith on Main Street.

"But we're going to have to turn out to get him elected. "Time and time again they have relied on labor to turn this country around. We will do it again. But it will be the last time we're going to get them out of this mess.

"For us this election will be about survival. If we don't win, we'll survive, but it won't be pretty."

Congressman John Dingell (D-15th District) -

"If you like to hunt and fish, don't worry about voting for Barack Obama. He's going to see to it that you keep your guns and that you can afford to hunt and fish.

We've had eight years of the worst administration since Caligula. He appointed his horse Counsel of the Roman Empire. Well this president has been worse. After George Bush went into office, the deficit has grown bigger every year. He came into a prosperous country and labor was fine. We were enjoying a good standard of living. Since then Michigan has lost 4,000 jobs a month during this administration.

"Republicans have always been trying to undo the National Labor Relations Act. That's why we need the Employee Free Choice Act, and that's what you'll get if you help get Barack Obama elected, and if you elect Democrats in the House and Senate."

Michigan AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney -

"This is a union town, and this is a union state, and if we do our job in two weeks this will be a trade union nation.

"This election is not over yet. You thought John McCain just suspended his campaign. Naah, he didn't do that. We can't give up we have to keep working one union member at a time, one job site at a time, to use our union power to elect union-friendly candidates."

IBEW General President Edwin Hill -

"I want to say thanks to you. We've been to Pittsburgh. We've been to Cleveland. We've been to Detroit and this is the biggest crowd that we've had.

"You have heard all the reasons why we need to elect Barack Obama. You heard about the EFCA the National Labor Relations Board. Let me give you the final one.

"One thing you have to understand, is survival. If we don't win this election, stick your head between your legs and kiss it goodbye.. We'll survive, but it won't be a pretty scene. "

Operative Plasterers and Cement Masons President Patrick Finley -

"We've got a choice to make. We can either vote for our jobs, health care or taxes, all the things Barack Obama stands for, or continue along with 'President' Cheney.

"We've got to remember one thing. We've got Congress people on the Hill who say they support us, but they put their hand on their mouth and whisper it. Senator Obama was asked about trade agreements the other night, and he looked right into the camera and said he would not condone trade agreements with Columbia because they condone labor leaders getting killed and arrested. That's who we need to lead this country."

Iron Workers General Secretary Mike Fitzpatrick (retired) -

"No one in labor after they know what John McCain is about should cast a vote for him. We look at what we're interested in and what they're interested in. We're interested in putting a roof over our head, food on our table, taking a vacation once in a while and educating our children.

"I have five children and five grandchildren. The hard part is that it's going to be harder on them than it is on me. That's why we have to take this back. This is our country, not the CEOs' country. So let's get out there and get after everybody we know to vote for Barack Obama and labor-friendly candidates."