‘The Nation’ Has the Word on Working America

by Laura Clawson, Sep 5, 2008

Since 2003, Working America, the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate, has been reaching out to working people who aren’t union members, engaging them on issues familiar to union members as well: health care, good jobs, retirement security. Recruiting an astounding two-thirds of the people its canvassers contact, Working America has a proven record of issue advocacy, including letter-writing and petitions. And as Working America gears up its efforts for November’s elections, readers of The Nation got an introduction to the organization—including its electoral record:

Oregon state AFL-CIO president Tom Chamberlain credits Working America’s canvassing in 2006 with Democrats winning a tough gubernatorial race, control of the Oregon House of Representatives and campaigns against several right-wing ballot measures, as well as critical legislative and budget victories last year.

The article also offers a preview to what you might find if a Working America canvasser knocks on your door in the coming weeks:

After Labor Day, canvassers for the group will try to contact every Working America member at the door with a field-tested, two-pronged message on behalf of Barack Obama. They’ll contrast the positions of Obama and John McCain on critical issues, especially health care, but they’ll also talk personally about why they’re working on behalf of Obama. “We will give people information they’re not getting,” says Karen Nussbaum, the group’s executive director, “but we also will communicate the way people personally make their decisions.”

With as many as one-third of Working America’s 2.5 million members undecided about the presidential election and many of these undecided voters filled with misinformation about Barack Obama, these in-person contacts could tip the scales in a battleground state like Ohio, where 800,000 of its members are located.

And most importantly, our members will carry a sense of their own power as working people beyond Nov. 4. According to Roger Lasch, a Working America activist from Pennsylvania who joined after having been downsized from his job at Target:

It just made me feel better knowing I could say something and be heard and not be just a voice in the wind. It’s a wonderful feeling having an organization behind you making you feel you accomplished something. There’s big strength in numbers. When you join an organization like Working America, I think you build a better future for America and your family.

Print This Article | E-Mail This Article |Comments (0)