Sen. Franken Joins Senate, Co-Sponsors Employee Free Choice Act

by Seth Michaels, Jul 8, 2009

Sen. Al Franken speaks at the AFL-CIO last night after his swearing-in.

Yesterday, after a long, hard campaign and almost eight months of vote counting and litigation, Al Franken was sworn in as the newest U.S. senator representing Minnesota. Then he signed on for the first time as co-sponsor of a bill—the Employee Free Choice Act.

Franken announced his co-sponsorship at a reception last night at the AFL-CIO, where Minnesota leaders like former Vice President Walter Mondale, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Minnesota AFL-CIO President Ray Waldron helped union members and leaders welcome him to Washington, D.C.

Franken, a strong supporter of workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain, said his membership in four unions—AFTRA, SAG, WGAE and DGA—gave him, wife Franni and his family the opportunities that all working families deserve:

Because of my membership in those unions, Franni and I had health care during the campaign. Because of my membership in those unions, we have a pension.

We need to level the playing field. Unions built the middle class in this country, but we’ve seen the playing field become a steep hill. We’ve seen a great risk shift in this country.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney called Franken “smart, committed, a solid friend to working families,” and said that he’s a great addition to the Senate:

He’s the real deal, and will be a remarkable, honorable senator….[I]t couldn’t come at a better time.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka said workers and the union movement will have a strong ally in Franken:

You’re family. You’re welcome here all the time, because you’ve worked for working families your entire career.

Arlene Holt Baker, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO, said union households and Working America undertook a massive effort to make sure Franken could fight for working families in the Senate. Union households, she said, made up 30 percent of the vote in Minnesota, and 72 percent of union voters supported Franken. Union members in Minnesota, she said, knocked on 944,000 doors and distributed 1.5 million worksite fliers. Working America added 200,000 members in the state and knocked on 130,000 doors to get out the vote. With only a few hundred votes making the difference in Franken’s election, all that effort paid off, she said:

In an election this close, everybody’s contribution counts. Without the efforts of the grassroots in Minnesota we wouldn’t have Sen. Franken today.

Franken will take the seat once held by the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, a fighter for working families, and he took the oath of office on the Wellstone family Bible. Quoting Wellstone, Franken said he’ll be guided in office by the late senator’s principles and values:

Politics isn’t about winning, it isn’t about power. It’s about improving people’s lives.

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