Labor & Employment Law

Union Activists Getting Out the Vote Around the Country

By Mike Hall

In Ohio, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka urges union members to get out the vote Nov. 2.

Here?s a quick look at some upcoming AFL-CIO Labor 2010 actions in Nevada, Connecticut and Florida and reports on recent activity in Wisconsin, Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

On Saturday, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler will join Connecticut union activists in get-out-the-vote (GOTV) neighborhood walks to convey how Republican Senate candidate Linda McMahon thinks Congress should consider lowering the minimum wage.

Early next week, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will be in Nevada, where extremist and tea party favorite Sharron Angle is opposing U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Among other outrageous positions, Angle wants to phase out and privatize Social Security and Medicare. Trumka will join union workers in Reno and Las Vegas for worksite leafleting and other actions.

Among other stops, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker will be in Florida for a ?twofer??GOTV activities in Miami and Palm Beach and she?ll throw a jab at mostly Florida resident John Raese, who’s running as a Republican for the Senate in West Virginia and has sparked controversy over his recruitment of ?hicky? blue-collar workers for his campaign ad.

In Wisconsin , John Roberts and Adam Holmes of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 7 are getting out the union family vote.

Holt Baker and others will spotlight Raese?s Palm Beach mansion?the one with the pink marble driveway?where he spends most of his time in the state where his children attend school and his wife is registered to vote. Not your typical West Virginia family.

In recent actions, Wisconsin union voters are rallying behind Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett in his battle against Scott Walker in the governor?s race. Barrett met with union volunteers in Eau Claire and Milwaukee just before they set out to go door to door and head to the phone banks.

Wisconsin State AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt told the Eau Claire activists:

Our goal is simple. We are fighting to elect candidates who will support working families. Tom Barrett will protect workers? rights and stop Wisconsin jobs from being outsourced. He has a plan which will create 180,000 new jobs during his first term by investing in job training and green technologies, as well as cutting through red tape on new construction. That is the kind of leadership that we need to jumpstart our economy.

The fact is there’s a lot more of us than there is of them, and if we go and vote, we’re going to win, and that’s what we’re here for.

Meanwhile, Trumka joined Ohio union members in Cincinnati and Dayton in door-to-door walks this past weekend, talking with union family voters about the stark differences between gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland, Senate candidate Lee Fisher and several U.S. House candidates and their Republican opponents.

In Cincinnati, he said Rep. Steve Driehaus? opponent for the U.S. House seat, Steve Chabot, spent

a career in Congress trying to weaken regulations and strengthen Wall Street, cut back taxes on the rich and the whole time he was doing that, he was whacking at workers?.He sponsored a national right to work law to take our power away from us?[Driehaus] stands with working families, he wants to create jobs here and stop the outsourcing.?He fought to rein in greed and excess on Wall Street.?He personally saved thousands of jobs at the General Electric plant in Evendale.

In Pennsylvania, union military veterans led a Bucks County labor walk for Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) and Rep. Joe Sestak, who is running for U.S. Senate. James Gilbert, director of the AFL-CIO Union Veterans Council, said:

With unemployment rates higher among veterans than the general population, we cannot afford anti-worker candidates who will put the interest of the rich over those of hard-working veterans and their families.

This week in Kentucky, the Kentucky State AFL-CIO kicked off its ?Life In Rand Paul?s Radical World Tour.? Along its route, the GOTV tour will hit plant gates and community centers, union halls and construction sites. At each stop, members will be made aware of Paul?s radical statements on everything from granting tax breaks to companies that send jobs overseas, to removing OSHA regulations, from adding a $2,000 deductible on Medicare, to doing away with unemployment benefits.

Unlike Paul?s recent so-called ?meet and greets? and his current GOTV tour, Nate Byer, AFL-CIO Labor 2010 communications director in Kentucky, said the media is welcome to attend.

Byer in Kentucky, Andrew Richards in Ohio and Karen Hickey in Wisconsin contributed to this report.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on October 21, 2010 (boomark / email).