Labor & Employment Law

Knocking on Doors, Winning Votes

By Mike Hall

On Saturday, Joseph Portman, a member of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), spent the day door-knocking on union members? doors in Louisville, Ky., talking with them about the vast differences between union-backed U.S. Senate candidate Jack Conway (D) and Tea-Party-endorsed Rand Paul (R).

On the drive back to UAW Local 862, where more than 100 union members had gathered that morning for another in a series of labor walks, Portman said getting out the working family message is

important for us to do…and for me more importantly, because I?m a union member and people like to hear from people who actually get out there and work….For the next 38 days, this is what I?m going to be doing.

In this video from Nate Byer, AFL-CIO communications director in Kentucky, Conway tells the union members they are the down-to-earth weapons that will beat the massive Republican and corporate spending spree that?s fueling Paul?s campaign.

We?re getting out spent by Karl Rove?s special interests groups and special interest money 4 to 1. But we?ve got feet on the street, we?ve got youthful energy?This race is your race. My issues are your issues. This is a collective future we?re talking about.

Take a look at the video and remember similar scenes are taking place every day across the country as working family voters and union members fight back against the hundreds of million of dollars extremist special interests and corporations pour into the Republican campaigns. Says Gerry Best, president of UFCW Local 227

I don?t want to be part of a society that has a super class that has all the power, all the authority, all the control and the rest of us are relegated to the sidelines.

For more on Labor 2010 in Kentucky, click here.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on September 28, 2010 (boomark / email).