Momentum Building as Union Members Pull Out Stops for Election

by James Parks, Oct 10, 2008

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka joins members of IUE-CWA Local 755 in Dayton, Ohio, in handing out issues leaflets to union members.

With just 25 days to Election Day, you can feel the momentum building as working people and their unions go all out to reach every union member. From AFL-CIO President John Sweeney to the newest rank-and-file members, workers are spreading the word that the stakes in this election are huge for working people and we must take this opportunity to turn around America by electing leaders who support workers’ issues such as good jobs, affordable health care, retirement security and the Employee Free Choice Act.

You can see the enthusiasm and excitement at phone banks in local union halls—including AFL-CIO headquarters—and in community walks across the country, where union members by the hundreds of thousands are delivering the same message: The nation cannot afford another four years of Bush/McCain.

Just following along the schedules of the three top AFL-CIO officers is exhausting. Just this week, Sweeney was in New York on Monday to participate in a labor lawyers fundraiser for the Obama–Biden ticket. On Tuesday and Wednesday, he spoke in North Carolina, and on Thursday in Minnesota.  

This week, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka attended the presidential debate in Nashville, Tenn., after spending a week in Ohio. He headed back to Ohio on Thursday.   

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker spoke in New Jersey and attended a voting monitor training in Philadelphia on Wednesday and she is off to Wisconsin for two days on Friday.  

Here’s just a sample of the other actions across the country in the past few days:

• The UAW Voluntary Community Action Program launched a new TV, radio and Internet advertising campaign in four key states, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, attacking John McCain’s health care and economic policies.
• AFGE launched a radio ad in which union President John Gage urged working families to put aside racial and gender bias and vote for the candidate who stands with working people.
• In the two weeks leading up to the election, United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard and Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney will join with former Steelers players for a “Steel Blitz” bus tour throughout Pennsylvania to support the Obama-Biden ticket. Click here for more information on the bus tour. Gerard also wrote two blogs for Huffington Post, pointing out Sarah Palin’s cynical use of her husband’s union membership to try to appeal to working families when, in reality, she is on board with John McCain’s anti-worker agenda. 
• AFT President Randi Weingarten spoke in New Hampshire last weekend and is headed out again this weekend to several stops in battleground states.
• Letter Carriers (NALC) President William Young and 20 other NALC officials joined the AFL-CIO phone bank and called NALC members urging them to vote for Barack Obama and other worker-friendly candidates.
• In Youngstown, Ohio, Joe Rugola, Ohio AFL-CIO president, set out on a 300-mile trek around the state to bring attention to the toll of the past eight years of Bush-McCain economic polices—more than 180,000 Ohio jobs lost and nearly 1,100 plants, factories and other workplaces closed forever.
• In Valparaiso, Ind., members of Iron Workers Local 395, United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1066 and USW Local 9231 knocked on more than 300 doors in one afternoon to discuss with their union brothers and sisters the reasons why Sen. Barack Obama and gubernatorial candidate Jill Long Thompson are the best candidates for Indiana working families.
• The Mine Workers mailed a DVD to its members featuring union President Cecil Roberts, explaining why union members should support Obama. On the DVD, Roberts calls on the members to not let race and other side issues keep them from voting for the candidate who backs workers’ issues. He says, “I would rather have a black friend in the White House than a white enemy in the White House.”

 Sweeney put the issues in this election in perspective, explaining why workers are so focused on the outcome of the vote on Nov. 4. 

[Last week] Americans woke up to the news that in August, we lost another 159,000 jobs—760,000 since the beginning of the year. That same day, it became clear that the taxpayers who took on the burden of bailing out Wall Street would not get extended unemployment benefits or a job-creating stimulus package—measures George Bush said he would veto. Nearly 50 million are without health care. In August alone, more than 300,000 Americans lost their homes to foreclosure. Families are worried about putting food on the table, putting gas in the tank and being able to retire with the security that few feel these days.

Millions of us are ready to believe we can turn our country into something better than it has become under Republican control. We’re ready to elect leaders who’ll work for an America that works for all, with decent wages and benefits and good jobs that can support a family.

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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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