Union members made a difference Nov. 4

In Oregon and around the nation, union staff, volunteers and members made a difference Nov. 4.

The AFL-CIO spent an estimated $53 million on the election, and member unions spent an additional $200 million. In the weeks prior to the election, national union offices virtually closed down as staff headed out to battleground states to do political work. About 4,000 paid staff worked on the AFL-CIO mobilization nationwide to inform union members on issues and candidates and getting them out to vote.

AFL-CIO union voters received 70 million phone calls, 10 million door knocks, 57 million pieces of mail and 27 million worksite fliers, focusing on economic issues. And the AFL-CIO community affiliate, Working America, sent out as many as 1,000 full-time canvassers in 11 battleground states to knock on more than 300,000 doors.

Nationwide, about 21 percent of voters were members of a union or union household. According to a post-election analysis by the national AFL-CIO, more than 80 percent of union members received union publications and union mail, 59 percent received live phone calls and 32 percent received worksite fliers.

Those contacts made a difference. While voters overall went for Barack Obama 52 percent compared to 45 percent for John McCain, union voters supported Obama 67 percent to 30 percent. In battleground states, the difference was even bigger, with union members going for Obama 69 to 28 — a 41-point margin. Among the electorate as a whole, Obama won by 13 points in Wisconsin, 16 points in Michigan, 10 points in Minnesota and 11 points in Pennsylvania, all states with large numbers of union households. [In Oregon and Washington, Obama’s margin of victory was 16.29 percent (56.74-40.45 percent) and 16.68 percent (57.41-40.73 percent), respectively.]

Overall, McCain won among voters ages 65 and up, but active and retired union members older than 65 went for Obama by a 46-point margin. And overall, McCain won among veterans, but union veterans went for Obama by a 25-point margin.

More than 250,000 union volunteers devoted time and energy to reach out to fellow union members. They knocked on 10 million doors, made 70 million phone calls, distributed 27 million worksite fliers and sent 57 million union mail pieces.

And that made a difference in races from the White House to state legislatures.

In Oregon, the AFL-CIO political effort almost certainly made the difference in electing Jeff Merkley to the U.S. Senate.

For three months leading up to the election, the state federation ran a phone bank out of its office on NE Russell St. in Portland. The Working America community affiliate also played a major part, staffing up to as many as 150 canvassers in the final months. And the effort was bulked up by “lost-timers,” union activists who get temporary leave from their employers, and have their “lost time” wages paid by the union.

Mike Pucik, for example — a member of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 — worked on the Oregon AFL-CIO political campaign for three months on lost time.

So did Kevin Card, a member of National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Branch 82. Card was one of seven NALC lost-timers in Oregon, and over 200 nationwide, reflecting a decision of the national leadership to emphasize “boots on the ground” instead of campaign contributions.

NALC members helped the state labor federation organize its door-to-door canvass, using their workplace expertise to divide up turf into walkable routes for volunteers to knock on doors in the most efficient order. And on election day, from 5 p.m. on, NALC Branch 82 had over 70 volunteers stand in front of postal boxes that had no more deliveries for the day, directing voters to drop boxes where they could still get ballots in on time.

Oregon also swelled with volunteers from out of state, like Paul Rasso of the California School Employees Association. CSEA sent about 75 lost-timers to five other states, including over a dozen to Oregon. Rasso got leave from his job as a technician at the Colton Joint Unified School District to spend two weeks in Portland help the union campaigns for Obama and Merkley, and against Measure 64.

“Defeating Measure 64 is a big plus for us in California,” Rasso said. “We were afraid something like that, which would affect public employees, would roll over to California.”

Within the Change to Win federation, union staff and volunteers ran a similar campaign, with phone banks and door knocking of union members and the general public. Affiliates pooled resources to do joint mailings and canvasses. Service Employees International Union, for example, reported making nearly a quarter million phone calls in Oregon, knocking on over 100,000 doors, and distributing over a third of a million pieces of literature.

“I feel like the registration work and the field activity we did around the ballot measures had an impact further down on the ballot,” said SEIU Local 503 political director Arthur Towers. “You look at the Oregon House Democrats picking up five seats, look at Kate Brown and Ben Westlund winning office.”

Towers said Oregon union activists had three strong motivators this year: Obama, Merkley and Bill Sizemore. “That extra motivation turned out union voters and energized union activists. And the anti-Employee Free Choice Act attack ads really set the terms of the debate for this election and galvanized our folks to kick in. Every time they hit us between the eyes, our members come back more committed and more engaged.”

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