Labor 2008: The Battle Begins

by Seth Michaels, Aug 5, 2007

“You in the room are the people who are going to move a victorious 2008 labor program.”

That’s how Karen Ackerman, political director of the AFL-CIO, introduced the 2007 Battleground States Conference today in Chicago. It’s one of the most important political events in this election cycle. In front of an audience of labor leaders and activists from across the country, the AFL-CIO’s political team laid out the strategy to win in the 2008 elections and to improve life for millions of working families.

“America is still not working for working families,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. He pointed to the filibuster of the Employee Free Choice Act, the anti-worker decisions of John Roberts’ Supreme Court, the flawed “free trade” system and the failures of American health care. Sweeney said the union movement’s political victories in 2006 were just a start and 2008 will be a “breakthrough opportunity.” He described Tuesday’s AFL-CIO Presidential Candidates Forum as “the biggest job interview in history,” with thousands attending and millions watching on MSNBC and listening on XM Radio. (The broadcast, with “Countdown” host Keith Olbermann as moderator, begins at 7 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Central. Find out more here.)

 ”We are ready for the fight of our lives, and we are going to win,” said AFSCME President Gerald McEntee, who chairs the AFL-CIO’s Political Education Committee.  No matter what the polls look like today, he said, the 2008 election is bound to be a difficult, close fight. He was enthusiastic and confident, though, about what the union movement will accomplish.

In 2006, the labor movement led its largest political outreach in history. It worked. Union members voted 74 percent for union-endorsed candidates, thanks to the education and mobilization their unions provided. This made the crucial difference in defeating party-line Republicans who had been blocking progressive policies, like an increase in the minimum wage. “No other entity in this country speaks to so many voters,” Ackerman said. “We have to make sure everyone knows this…unions make the difference in this country.” The people we elect need to know this, Ackerman said, so we can hold them accountable and make sure they deliver the policies working families need.

Last year the AFL-CIO reached out to 13.4 million voters in 34 states. Next year the program will be even larger, speakers at the conference said. It starts this year, when AFL-CIO unions mobilize to replace Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher, notorious for allegations of corruption and for discarding collective bargaining agreements with public employees. It will continue in 2008, when the AFL-CIO will activate millions of working families to vote for pro-worker candidates all around the country, from mayors’ offices and state legislatures all the way to the White House.

For a long-time political observer, there’s a real thrill in being in this room, getting to see the roadmap to victories in 2008 for the union movement.

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