2008 in Review: McCain Sinking, Employee Free Choice Act Rising
Here’s the fifth part in our series taking a look back at 2008. Be sure to check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.
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The presidential campaign dominated the headlines as summer turned to fall.
By Labor Day, the traditional start of the campaign season, the tens of thousands of union volunteers who had been on the ground for months intensified their efforts. On the job, at the doors and on the phones, they talked with even more union members about the stark differences between Barack Obama’s working families agenda and John McCain’s corporate platform.
In a Labor Day message, Obama told workers:
It’s time you had a president who honors organized labor—who’s walked on picket lines; who doesn’t choke on the word “union”; who lets our unions do what they do best and organize our workers; and who will finally make the Employee Free Choice Act the law of the land.
2008 in Review: Workers Win Unions, Crown Bad Bosses
Here’s the fourth part in our series taking a look back at 2008. Check out Part 1 here, Part 2 here and Part 3 here.
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In July, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka gave a speech to delegates at the United Steelworkers (USW) convention warning that as the presidential campaign heats up, there will be attempts to divide workers by race. His bold and much-needed statement went on to became a YouTube, Internet and blog sensation throughout the campaign season:
Barack Obama has always, always been on our side. This is a guy who’s voted with labor 98 percent of the time….There’s not a single good reason for any worker—especially any union member—to vote against Barack Obama. There’s only one really bad reason to vote against him: because he’s not white.
2008 in Review: Workers Sign Up with AFL-CIO Unions
Here’s the third part in our series taking a look back at 2008. Check out Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
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May-June
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Union members knocked on the first of what would be 10 million of union voters’ doors around the country to talk with them about the key working family issues in the 2008 elections. In the late spring and early summer, we focused on John McCain’s record on health care and the economy.
Along with door-to-door walks, union members mobilized through phone banks, labor council meetings, political training, worksite leafleting and public events.
As union volunteers talked with union members about McCain plans to tax their health care benefits, other union activists were shadowing McCain’s every stop, demanding real health care solutions answers and not just Band-Aid solutions.
