Minnesota Union Members Honor Wellstone by Getting Out the Vote

Minnesota teachers and AFT President Randi Weingarten join U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken.

Workday Minnesota editor Barb Kucera reports, union members in Minnesota honored the late Sen. Paul Wellstone this past weekend in a way that he would have applauded: getting out the vote. 

On Saturday, the sixth anniversary of the plane crash that killed U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone (D), union leaders and elected officials evoked the spirit of Minnesota’s “labor senator” to rally members in the final days before Nov. 4. Two national union presidents, AFT President Randi Weingarten and Painters and Allied Trades President (IUPAT) Jimmy Williams, joined us in the day’s get-out-the-vote events.

At a massive door-knock organized out of the St. Paul Labor Centre and at numerous other events across Minnesota, unions dispatched volunteers to knock on doors and sway the last few uncommitted voters who may be left in this battleground state.

As Al Franken, labor-endorsed candidate for U.S. Senate, told volunteers gathered in St. Paul:

We’re going to take back this country.

Franken is seeking to take back the seat once held by his friend, Wellstone, by defeating incumbent Republican Norm Coleman.

Two national union leaders fired up the group with speeches that underscored the importance of electing Democrat Barack Obama and labor-endorsed candidates at every level. Said Weingarten, president of the 1.4-million-member AFT:

The Republican Party has nothing to offer. They’ve run this world to the ground.

Contrasting the GOP record with the party’s proposals on teacher compensation, Weingarten said:

Let them get merit pay. Let them get performance pay.

She predicted Americans would judge the Republican officials’ performance by voting them out.

Williams, president of the 140,000-member IUPAT, said union members are fired up all over the United States, telling volunteers:

This [mobilizing] is happening in every union hall across the country. There are no excuses to have one union member not vote in this election.

Nationally, the figures on the union movement’s involvement in the election are staggering. A recent AFL-CIO report indicates the nation’s largest labor federation shows more than 250,000 volunteers making 70 million phone calls, distributing 27 million worksite fliers and knocking on 10 million doors.

At the St. Paul Labor Centre, photos of Wellstone and quotes from the two-term senator adorn giant banners in the hall where volunteers assemble materials and sign up for the door-knock. Wellstone; his wife, Sheila; their daughter, Marcia; three campaign workers; and two pilots were killed when their small plane crashed while trying to land in Eveleth, Minn., Oct. 25, 2002.

Bree Halverson, political organizer for the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, best summed up the day’s actions:

What you saw here today is what Paul Wellstone was all about.

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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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