Getting Out Every Vote in Pennsylvania, Colorado and Ohio

by Seth Michaels, Oct 21, 2008

Union members in Pennsylvania, Colorado and Ohio, three of the most crucial states this election cycle, are stepping up member-to-member outreach as part of the AFL-CIO Labor 2008 political program. With only two weeks to go, union leaders and volunteers are working harder than ever to ensure that working families win this fall.

In many states—including Colorado and Ohio—early voting is already under way, at polling places and by mail. Election Day isn’t just Nov. 4, it’s every day between now and then, which means every phone call, leaflet and door knock matters right now. Voting early helps reduce lines at the polls on Election Day and allows those who’ve already voted to volunteer and make sure others vote.

In Pennsylvania, a state where the union vote was critical in 2004, the state’s union members are turning out in big numbers to take part in union member-to-member walks and worksite visits.

John Wurtenberg, a Bricklayers member from Philadelphia, says he sees the difference his worksite visits make when he discusses how the policies of Sen. Barack Obama would benefit working people, while those proposed by Sen. John McCain—who has voted 90 percent of the time with George W. Bush—would lead to more economic disaster, as in the Bush years.

I’m out every morning and talking to fellow union members about Barack Obama. I am making member-to-member contact a top priority. When you talk to another union member in person it means so much more. Union members want to hear from their brothers and sisters. All of the issues that are going to impact working families this election—health care, benefits, the right to form a union and bargain fairly for contracts—have to do with your union. It makes sense then that as union members we are talking about these issues and educating each other about them.

Rep. Patrick Murphy won his first term in Congress in 2006 by fewer than 1,500 votes in Pennsylvania’s 8th District. He understands the difference union mobilization can make. He says phone banks, door-to-door walks, worksite visits and local union mail are critical to ensuring union members vote for pro-worker candidates.

I would not be a congressman today if it were not for the AFL-CIO and the Pennsylvania labor movement. The key to winning in November comes down to union members talking to union members: Member-to-member contact is what can win this election.

In Colorado, early voting began yesterday, and union volunteers there are getting in touch with union members to make sure they get their vote counted. Colorado is a swing state in the presidential election and voters also will get to decide a close U.S. Senate race and have the chance to defeat some anti-worker ballot initiatives.

Cindy Kirby, a member of the Letter Carriers (NALC), is among union volunteers getting out the vote to elect Obama to the White House and Mark Udall to the Senate. She says that vote-by-mail and early voting are both good options to avoid long lines at the polls.

Ohio was a decisive state in 2004, and union members here are taking part in rallies, walks and phone banks to make sure it’s on the winning side in two weeks. Leo Gerard, president of the USW, spent much of the past week touring Ohio as part of this fall’s “Steel Blitz.” Gerard is telling Ohio union members that electing Obama will be an opportunity to put workers first.

We have a candidate for president, Barack Obama, who believes in unions, who says it’s important that we rebuild the middle class, says it’s important that we do things for working families to give them a fair shake, and a person who says that, in order to do that, you’ve got to have a strong labor movement.

We’re here to encourage our members to take part in labor walks every day, to take part in handbilling their membership at the plant gates and discussing how important this election is, to get on phone banks. It’s important that we get every single member, our families, our neighbors, our friends, and we talk to them about how important this election is.

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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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