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Current News Labor Makes the Winning Difference in Election 2006
Current News Labor Makes the Winning Difference in Election 2006
| Labor Makes the Winning Difference in Election 2006 |
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Union Vote Puts Pro-Labor Candidates in Power Nationwide, Passes Bond Measures in California
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According to national exit polls, union families provided two-thirds of the Democratic victories and helped to rout anti-labor forces in Washington, DC and around the nation. “We were by far the most powerful turnout engine on the progressive side,” noted AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. Analysts agree. “The Democrats wouldn’t have won nearly as many seats without labor’s money and manpower,” said Larry J. Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia. California labor unions put the pedal to the metal this election cycle. Statewide, unions mobilized 20,000 volunteers, distributed 1.7 million worksite flyers and talked to over 400,000 union voters. Labor Wins Big in LA and OC - In Los Angeles and Orange Counties, volunteers talked with more than half a million union and unaffiliated voters and distributed 2.2 million pieces of mail. Building Trades Unions stepped up in the final six weeks of the election, organizing jobsite visits throughout Southern California to distribute literature and talk to Union members about the issues facing working people. “We talked to over 12,000 Building Trades Workers in Los Angeles County alone,” said Kevin Norton, Political Director of IBEW Local 11. Similar numbers were reported in Orange and San Diego Counties. “There is no question that the huge voter turn out in this county was made possible in great part by the efforts of the Los Angeles Labor Movement,” said Controller Elect for the State of California, John Chiang. ”No where in the state did labor endorsed candidates do as well then in Los Angeles County.” For eight weeks, over 14,000 union volunteers walked and phone banked to get out the vote for Phil Angelides, John Garamendi, John Chiang and various other labor endorsed candidates and propositions. 
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“Political Action is a vital component of protecting our jobs and benefits,” said Richard Slawson, Executive Secretary of the LA/OC Building and Construction Trades Council. “Once again, Building Trades members mobilized and helped our candidates win. Thanks to all of our members who volunteered to help elect leaders who will be fighting to protect middle class construction jobs.” Fears that the recent split in the AFL-CIO would diminish labor’s impact in this election turned out to be unfounded. Instead, the union movement had one of its best years in over a decade. Because of the efforts of labor, the Democrats well exceeded the 15-seat margin needed to return the US House of Representatives to Democratic leadership and gained the six seats needed for a majority in the Senate. Among union households, 74 percent voted for Democratic candidates. In addition, union members made up one in four voters Most labor leaders agree that the vote for Democrats to reclaim the majority in both the Senate and the House was an unequivocal expression of dissatisfaction with the anti-worker policies of the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress. In key battleground states, exit polls showed that union members voted for pro-labor candidates at a slightly higher rate than the nationwide union average – choosing endorsed candidates 76 percent of the time. While the issues of the Iraq war and corruption topped the list of concerns for most voters, economic issues were clearly on the minds of many who turned out to vote. With the GOP handing generous tax cuts to the extremely privileged, ordinary working people felt left behind. Voters in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and Ohio approved measures that raise state minimum wage levels by $1 to $1.70 an hour and indexed to inflation. Incoming House Democrats have pledged during the election that if they won control of the lower chamber, they would make raising the federal minimum wage—which has been stuck at $5.15 an hour for a decade—a top priority. At the congressional level, labor is expected to press hard for the Employee Free Choice Act. The bill, co-sponsored by 90 percent of House Democrats, would make organizing efforts by workers easier by increasing penalties on employers that illegally fire workers. Senate Republicans are expected to filibuster the legislation. Labor’s endorsed candidates won 7 of the 9 statewide offices by talking about the issues that are important to working class people: jobs, healthcare, affordable prescription medication and education. Analysts point out that in the two races labor lost, the victorious Republican candidates won not because they embraced a hard-right, anti-worker agenda, but because they sounded like moderate Democrats on many of the issues. Phil Angelides topped Arnold Schwarzenegger in the union strongholds of San Francisco and Los Angeles counties because of well-organized campaigns by labor, including member-to-member outreach, literature and flyers on the differences between the two candidates and effective mobilization of the membership. However, in the end, Schwarzenegger simply had too much star power statewide and won largely because he did an about face on the anti-worker agenda that he embraced only a year ago. The task for the labor movement now will be to keep a watchful eye on Schwarzenegger to ensure that he doesn’t regress and listen only to his Big Business Supporters. His defeat in last November’s special election forced him to run on what was essentially a Democratic platform. Now labor must ensure that he spends the next four years governing like the centrist he claims to be. |
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