by Seth Michaels, May 19, 2008

Hundreds of union members launched the biggest union mobilization yet in the 2008 political season with the first round of door-to-door walks, part of the AFL-CIO Labor 2008 political mobilization program.

Union volunteers in more than 20 states shared information on key working family issues, like health care and the economy, reaching thousands of union members in states such as Indiana, New Hampshire, Colorado, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Ohio (watch video). The walks will continue in coming months as millions of union members mobilize to elect a working family-friendly president and Congress.

In these early union member-to-member walks, union volunteers are focusing on health care, especially the health care plan proposed by Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee. His plan would undermine existing health care coverage, creating a new tax on health care and pushing people into the private market to deal with insurance companies on their own. It wouldn’t cut costs or cover more people.

Matt Trost, an IBEW member from Missouri, was one of hundreds of volunteers who hit the streets and knocked on doors this weekend.

I’m here today to get out the vote, and to get labor to support a candidate who supports our issues, including affordable health care. 

The AFL-CIO Labor 2008 political program is set to become the largest union political mobilization in history, and union member-to-member contact, like this past Saturday’s labor walks, is the most effective way to mobilize and educate working families. Through door-to-door walks, worksite visits, phone banks and mail, thousands of union volunteers will reach out to millions of union members.

The union vote will be crucial in electing the next president, and it’s essential to educate union members and their families about the issues that affect them and where the candidates stand. With an economic crisis hitting working families around the country, issues like trade, housing, jobs and health care will move voters, and candidates, up and down the ballot, have to respond to these concerns.

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