Political action à la AFL-CIO
22/Jan/2007 10:34
The day after
the last mid-term US elections, the AFL-CIO issued a
media release to credit the union vote for driving
the shift in balance of power. Election day exit
polling and an independent national election-night
survey released by the AFL-CIO showed that union
voters supported Democratic House candidates by a 50
point margin compared to the non-union voter margin
of 2 points.
In a
presentation to our class, Sandy Felder, North-East
Regional Director for the AFL-CIO, explained that the
AFL-CIO organized for the election knowing that
the majority of union members disapprove of
President Bush’s job performance, particularly
with respect to the war in Iraq and the economy.
As AFL-CIO President John Sweeney put it after the
election, "our challenge at the AFL-CIO was to
provide the organizing to transform the
frustration and anger into political power. We
responded with the biggest, most energetic
grassroots program in our history, and it worked.”
The AFL-CIO’s strategy was to focus efforts on thirty-two battleground states and turn out the union vote on election day. The program was successful in reaching 13.4 million voters who were either union members, members of union households, union retirees, or members of Working America, the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate for workers who don’t have a union. (See my blog posting about Working America for more details on this interesting initiative.)
The AFL-CIO’s political action machinery is formidable. They have put together massive databases with voter information drawn from all kinds of sources, including newspaper and magazine subscription lists. Their technology is so sophisticated they can predict how an individual union member is likely to support by taking into account various sources of electronic “intelligence.” They have access to millions of union household phone numbers and email addresses. And they have put together an impressive network of activists who do the political work on-the-ground. This complex machinery is essential because by law, US unions are restricted to communicating with members only, and only through direct communication (as opposed to through public advertising, for example).
More than 205,000 union members volunteered for the AFL-CIO’s political program leading up to the election. They knocked on more than 8.25 million doors, made 30 million phone calls and passed out more than 14 million leaflets at workplaces and in neighborhoods. More than 20 million pieces of mail were sent to union households, not including those sent by affiliate unions. In the last four days of the campaign, the AFL-CIO turned out 187,000 volunteers, made nearly 8 million phone calls and knocked on 3.5 million doors. Ninety-two per cent of union members in battleground states said they heard form their union in the last election campaign.
One of the goals of the campaign was to reach drop-off voters—voters who usually don’t turn out in mid-term elections. The results: 79 per cent of union drop-off voters said they voted, and 76 per cent of these cast a Democratic ballot both for the Senate and the House, according to election night polling.
So, now that the Democrats hold the balance of power, what is the AFL-CIO’s agenda. Sweeney says the immediate priorities for Congress should include passing a higher minimum wage, giving Medicare the power to negotiate for lower drug prices, ending rewards for companies for sending US jobs overseas, restoring college funding and giving workers the freedom to organize and bargain. Long-term goals include health care reform, laws supporting retirement security and brining troops back from Iraq.
Sandy Felder acknowledges that most of the AFL-CIO’s political action energy and resources have focused on US elections but there are plans to move to other targets. The AFL-CIO’s ten-point program for political action aims to motivate and support year-round action by local unions in the workplace by integrating the work into regular union activity, and by carrying out special campaigns. Also, now that the Democrats hold the majority of seats, the AFL-CIO is committed to pushing its labour agenda forward through on-going pressure. For more details, check out the AFL-CIO political action site.
The AFL-CIO’s strategy was to focus efforts on thirty-two battleground states and turn out the union vote on election day. The program was successful in reaching 13.4 million voters who were either union members, members of union households, union retirees, or members of Working America, the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate for workers who don’t have a union. (See my blog posting about Working America for more details on this interesting initiative.)
The AFL-CIO’s political action machinery is formidable. They have put together massive databases with voter information drawn from all kinds of sources, including newspaper and magazine subscription lists. Their technology is so sophisticated they can predict how an individual union member is likely to support by taking into account various sources of electronic “intelligence.” They have access to millions of union household phone numbers and email addresses. And they have put together an impressive network of activists who do the political work on-the-ground. This complex machinery is essential because by law, US unions are restricted to communicating with members only, and only through direct communication (as opposed to through public advertising, for example).
More than 205,000 union members volunteered for the AFL-CIO’s political program leading up to the election. They knocked on more than 8.25 million doors, made 30 million phone calls and passed out more than 14 million leaflets at workplaces and in neighborhoods. More than 20 million pieces of mail were sent to union households, not including those sent by affiliate unions. In the last four days of the campaign, the AFL-CIO turned out 187,000 volunteers, made nearly 8 million phone calls and knocked on 3.5 million doors. Ninety-two per cent of union members in battleground states said they heard form their union in the last election campaign.
One of the goals of the campaign was to reach drop-off voters—voters who usually don’t turn out in mid-term elections. The results: 79 per cent of union drop-off voters said they voted, and 76 per cent of these cast a Democratic ballot both for the Senate and the House, according to election night polling.
So, now that the Democrats hold the balance of power, what is the AFL-CIO’s agenda. Sweeney says the immediate priorities for Congress should include passing a higher minimum wage, giving Medicare the power to negotiate for lower drug prices, ending rewards for companies for sending US jobs overseas, restoring college funding and giving workers the freedom to organize and bargain. Long-term goals include health care reform, laws supporting retirement security and brining troops back from Iraq.
Sandy Felder acknowledges that most of the AFL-CIO’s political action energy and resources have focused on US elections but there are plans to move to other targets. The AFL-CIO’s ten-point program for political action aims to motivate and support year-round action by local unions in the workplace by integrating the work into regular union activity, and by carrying out special campaigns. Also, now that the Democrats hold the majority of seats, the AFL-CIO is committed to pushing its labour agenda forward through on-going pressure. For more details, check out the AFL-CIO political action site.
|