Energized, Mobilized, Thousands of Union Volunteers GOTV

by Seth Michaels, Nov 3, 2008

Union volunteers packed labor halls to phone bank and headed out by the thousands to talk with union members in their neighborhoods this past weekend, in the final get-out-the-vote push before tomorrow’s elections.

Here’s a look at Colorado, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia, where member-to-member contacts could win this election for Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. Joe Biden and pro-working family candidates across the country.

In Pennsylvania, union volunteers throughout the summer and fall have built their efforts on the “Four Pillars” of union member-to-member mobilization: local union mail, worksite leafleting, phone banking and door-to-door canvassing.

Ann Converso, RN, president of the United American Nurses (UAN), visited Ohio this weekend to help mobilize union members to vote.

I think the union vote is not only going to be influential, I think it’s going to be critical…we’ve focused on the election because it’s going to be absolutely critical. Our members are out there on the streets. It’s a priority for us. We are making sure that not only union members, but former union members, retired union members…getting those people out on the streets. As Obama has said, don’t only bring yourself to the voting booth. Make sure that you take other people with you. 

Indiana is a battleground state this year for the first time in decades, and it’s due in large part to the efforts of union volunteers reaching out to other union members about the most important issues. Ben Ramsey, director of Indiana’s Building and Construction Trades Department, says the economic crisis has become the focus of union voters’ attention.

All our members are feeling the effects of the slowed national economy. And it hasn’t helped having a governor who doesn’t support unions and who does support privatization efforts. All building trades affiliates are working hard to spread the message for worker-friendly candidates, whether its at the statehouse level to make sure we fight against “right to work” for less and for Jill Long Thompson and Barack Obama. We’re making sure that our livelihoods are protected, and that the next generation of building and construction trades members have a lot to look forward to.

Virginia is another state that’s a true battleground for the first time in a generation, and state Del. Joe Morrissey came out to this weekend’s Richmond labor walk to tell union members they deserve credit for making victory possible in Virginia and the whole country.

On Election Night, Barack Obama is going to look into that camera and thank one group for what they’ve done—and that group is the AFL-CIO, because you have been the ones responsible for the most miraculous and spectacular ground game we’ve ever seen in a presidential election. More than 20 million union members were contacted on the phone, 12 million doors knocked and 1.5 million union members are out there doing this work. 

In Colorado, building trades members held a worksite leaflet at a power plant. Jim Cooksey, a member of the Boilermakers (IBB), says that with more than 1,200 union members on the job at the plant, leafleting there could swing the state.

We’re out here handbilling the job for the building trades here in Colorado. This election is probably the most important in any of our lives, and we feel it’s imperative that we get out here, get our message out, get our members to the polls, and get this thing turned around.

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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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