Postcard Campaign Launches Woman-to-Woman Connection on Key Election Issues

by Seth Michaels, Sep 15, 2008

In an election year when issues like pay equity, family and medical leave, health care and retirement are at stake, it’s important to make sure everyone recognizes the issues at stake and gets the information they need about the candidates. That’s especially true for the working women who have been among the hardest hit in the economic slowdown.

Over the next month, union women and Working America members will meet in small groups around the country, in homes, union halls and coffee shops. At these meetings, they’ll be talking about the most important issues and writing postcards to women in key states.

Through these hand-written postcards, working women will be encouraging other women to vote on the issues that matter most this fall.

Rosalyn Pelles, director of the AFL-CIO Civil, Human and Women’s Rights Department, says the postcard campaign is a vital way for union members to reach out to other members in key states.

This will be a tight election. We need to have every union woman go to the polls. We need every union woman to vote for candidates who understand women’s issues and the issues of working families—Barack Obama and Joe Biden.  

A similar campaign was held in Kentucky in 2007, and thousands of postcards reached union women who helped propel working-family candidate Steve Beshear (D) to a victory in his run for governor. Now, the effort is going nationwide.

This election is extremely important for working people. Obama and Biden support pro-worker policies like fair pay and paid sick leave, and they have a plan to restore the economy by protecting existing jobs, creating new jobs and giving tax credits to the middle class.

Sen. John McCain opposed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and he backs a massive new tax on working families’ health benefits. There’s no question working women would benefit with Obama as president.

Pelles says it’s this kind of direct contact that will ensure working women have the facts they need and are ready to make a change.

Women coming together a few at a time, all across the country, and reaching out to other women will make a tremendous difference. We may not always feel like our individual voices are heard, but when we come together as union women and Working America members, we can’t be ignored.

The campaign runs through Oct. 10. Organizers hope to send postcards to 50,000 women in battleground states.

Union members and Working America members who’d like to organize a Get-Out-the-Vote postcard event, can click here or contact rpelles@aflcio.org or tball@aflcio.org.

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Paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Political Contributions Committee, www.aflcio.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

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