I have an important message for Napa voters and the members of Local 180, working members and retirees. I worked as an inside wireman from June 1955, when I graduated from high school, until 1977, when both knees required surgery from 42 years of crawling in attics and under homes and buildings.

I was not able to return to work at the trade. I was not that disappointed because I intended to retire at age 62, which would have been within two years. Our retirement program has provided me with a comfortable retirement. And the support of the working members of 180 for the Health & Welfare program provided for we retirees is very much appreciated by all the retirees.

That is enough about me. The message I have is about economic recessions. In my working life I have experienced seven economic recessions; I’m going to list them so you can check it out in your history book.

1953-1954 Eisenhower  (Republican) One year.

1957-1958 Eisenhower  (Republican) One year.

1973-1975 Nixon/Ford (Republican) Two years.

1980-1982 Reagan (Republican) Worse recession since Depression. Two years.

1990-1991 George H.W. Bush (Republican) One year.

2001-2003 George W. Bush (Republican) Two years.

2008-Ongoing (Republican) ? years.

Who does an economic recession hurt? Most people answer that it hurts everyone. It doesn’t. It hurts working people that don’t have considerable wealth to carry themselves though the hard times. During the recessions that I lived though I had to travel long distances to find work when work was not available in Local 180. Luckily, I found work in Sacramento or San Francisco.

Many of my friends had to leave the state to find work. People like myself and others who work construction or at commercial enterprises, and retirees who live on fixed incomes, are the victims in an economic recession.

People who have considerable wealth welcome an economic recession because it is a wonderful buying opportunity to buy foreclosed property whether it is houses, cars, motor homes, etc. A very popular Republican, Alan Greenspan, who served 18 and one half years as the chairman of the Federal Reserve, said that his main job was to raise interest rates to slow down the economy if the unemployment number became too low. This could trigger inflation, which he and others of his ilk consider more important than providing jobs for working Americans.

I want to make it clear that I am not an enemy of the Republican Party. I have many friends and family members who are staunch Republicans. And they are not without empathy for working people who have lost their jobs. They just march to a different drummer than most working-class Americans. I don’t support the far left of the Democrat Party or the far right of the Republican Party. I hope that looking at the list of presidents that were running are country when we suffered economic recessions will have an impact on whether you will vote in November and who you vote for.

(Huss is the vice president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 180 retirees.)