Record-Setting Get-Out-the-Vote Union Volunteers in Kentucky

Members of the Iron Workers (top) were among many union members joined by community allies such as ACORN (bottom) for a get-out-the-vote walk in Kentucky over the weekend.

Bernard Pollack, AFL-CIO field coordinator, sends us this report on the campaign to elect a working family-friendly governor in Kentucky.

One thing was clear across the state of Kentucky on Saturday: The Labor 2007 get-out-the-vote program was the only place to be.

Some 268 union members from at least two dozen national unions joined our labor-to-labor walks—participating across Kentucky in Bowling Green, Covington, Henderson, Lexington, Louisville and Pikeville. Click here to view and download photos. With this latest weekend walk, we’ve moved more than 225,000 worksite leaflets in the field, while local unions have sent members more than 75,000 letters urging their participation in the upcoming elections.

Union volunteers this week came from the following unions: AFGE, AFSCME, Carpenters (UBC), Communications Workers of America (CWA), Electrical Workers (IBEW), Elevator Constructors (IUEC), Iron Workers, Laborers (LIUNA), Machinists (IAM), Mine Workers (UMWA), Operating Engineers (IUOE), Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), Plumbers and Pipe Fitters (UA), Postal Workers (APWU), SEIU, Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA), Teamsters (IBT), UAW and United Steelworkers (USW). 

Not only are these members part of the biggest field program in town, but outside Lexington and Louisville, they are the only real political field operation on the ground from either party. In northern Kentucky, more than 120 union volunteers went door to door, the largest walk we’ve ever held there. More than 40 volunteers walked door to door in Henderson, the first time we’ve ever walked there. We continued our walks in Pikeville, the first time we’ve ever walked in eastern Kentucky. We already had some of the biggest walks we’ve had yet in Bowling Green and Owensboro. In the past three weeks, more than 500 union volunteers have walked in Louisville alone.

Even Steve Beshear, Kentucky’s pro-worker candidate for governor, has a 20-point lead in the polls, union volunteers refuse to become complacent. Instead, we’re getting out the vote in more places than we’ve ever walked, with more union members than ever going door to door.

At the local NBC station in Louisville, Beshear said:

The labor movement runs the best political program in the country. The best way you can help me win is to do what you do best—your member program.

Clearly, we’re hitting home runs: Beshear’s opponent, Gov. Ernie “Anti-Worker” Fletcher, attacked our efforts in a press release.

Additionally, media across the state covered our activity this week, including stories in both major daily newspapers in Cincinnati, on our northern Kentucky walks; National Public Radio in Bowling Green; radio and print across eastern Kentucky; and NBC in Louisville, which aired a segment on Sunday night of our event with the AFL-CIO constituency group, the Coalition of Labor Union Women.

With more than 40,000 new AFL-CIO members who joined Working America, our universe has grown to more than 350,000 when you include active, household and retired union members. No other group in the state is the size we are. In fact, on Election Day, union members are expected to be more than 25 percent of all votes cast.

Here is a report from our walks on Oct. 6, 2007:

Statewide: 268 walkers from AFGE, AFSCME, APWU, CWA, IAM, IBEW, IBT, Iron Workers, IUEC, IUOE, IUPAT, LIUNA, SEIU, SMWIA, UA, UAW, UBC, UMWA and USW. 

Lexington: 139 walkers, including more than 25 from CWA, Iron Workers and LIUNA, and also participating were AFGE, AFSCME, APWU, IBEW, IUPAT, LIUNA, SEIU, SMWIA, UA, UBC and USW.

Louisville: 50 walkers from AFGE, AFSCME, CWA, IBEW, Iron Workers, IUEC, UAW and USW. Owensboro: 32 walkers all from the UAW.

Paducah: 39 walkers, including more than 10 from the Operating Engineers, and also participating were members from CWA, IAM, IBT, Iron Workers, UMWA and USW.

Pikeville: Eight walkers from the UMWA.

You are making history and laying the groundwork for victory.

Four more weeks!

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Paid for by AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Treasury Fund.

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