Labor & Employment Law

Trumka: Be Proud of Union GOTV Effort, Get Ready Again to Fight for Jobs

By James Parks

In a post-election video message, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka tells union members he is proud of what we had been able to do?and ?our fight for working families and for jobs begins again now.”

“We?ve got an economy to rebuild. And millions of people to put back to work. We?ve got crumbling infrastructure and struggling states and communities that need us.”

Trumka notes that while we are all disappointed by the election results, we can be proud of union members’ work?particularly in states like Nevada, West Virginia and California?where we were the firewall that prevented anti-worker candidates from taking office. Overall, union voters cast their ballots for working family candidates by a 64 percent to 36 percent margin.

He says President Obama called him this morning “to thank us for everything we did?for everything you did.“

Even though we were up against a flood of corporate cash and the very real economic anguish and frustration of voters, our message prevailed, Trumka says. Exit polls and a survey conducted Tuesday night for the AFL-CIO showed this election was a clear mandate for creating jobs and fixing the economy, not an endorsement of the Republican agenda.

Trumka detailed the massive union effort in the election:

• 200,000 union members volunteered in Labor 2010.
• We distributed 19.4 million fliers while talking with workers at the job site.
• We made millions of phone calls and knocked on 8.5 million doors.
• Working America, our community affiliate, also worked in more than 80 electoral races around the country, knocking on nearly 800,000 doors and making half a million phone calls.

?I couldn?t be prouder of what you did?of what we all did together,? Trumka said.

And I?m proud that I can count on you to jump into the fight for working families all over again, starting right now. We know what we have to do.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on November 03, 2010 (boomark / email).