Union Members Know What’s at Stake When They Vote

Welcome to Shant Mesrobian, a new AFL-CIO political writer, in his debut post.  

In an article for Salon.com titled “So Long, White Boy,” political scientist Tom Schaller notes the decreasing influence of blue-collar, white male voters—as Schaller calls them, “Bubba” voters—within Democratic politics. Schaller, who makes a similar argument in his book, Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South, advises Democrats that the solidly Republican voting pattern of white males coupled with their ever-decreasing share of the electorate makes them unattractive targets for Democratic appeals. 

Schaller does, however, make one exception, and that’s for current or retired union members. Our own  AFL-CIO deputy political director, Mike Podhorzer, sets the record straight, as Schaller writes: 

“The 2004 CNN exit poll data shows that [John] Kerry lost white males by 31 points if they weren’t in a union, but won them by seven points if they were—a 38-point difference,” says Mike Podhorzer, deputy political director of the AFL-CIO. “It’s no accident—union members understand that their votes make a difference, for their wages, their health care and their pensions. If, as they say, ‘there’s something the matter with Kansas,’ there’s nothing the matter with union members.” 

What’s more, a Christian Science Monitor article on the increasing influence of labor in the 2008 election notes that 24 percent of voters in the 2004 election were from union households, up from 19 percent in 1992. 

So, while we can’t really say whether Democrats should be abandoning any one group of voters, we can safely say this: Union membership matters. With such a strong correlation between union participation and informed economic voting, and with such a high share of the electorate, politicians whistle past the labor movement at their own peril.

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