**New Poll Shows Union Vote Provided Key Support in Battlegrounds** 

Leaders Vow to Continue Grassroots Campaign to Restore Economy That Works for All 

Union voters played an important role in President-elect Obama’s historic victory, delivering a critical bloc of support in swing states that helped propel Obama and other working family candidates to big wins last night, election-night polling released by the AFL-CIO today showed. Calling the victory in the presidential race and the expansion of majorities in the House and Senate a working families’ mandate for broad-based economic change, AFL-CIO leaders vowed to continue the large-scale mobilization to push through broad economic reform.

“Led by a candidate with an uncommon ability to inspire hope, we reclaimed our country from those who are serving corporate interests and the privileged at the expense of everyone else,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. “We have taken the first crucial steps to build a better future for our children and grandchildren. And what we’ve seen – the stunning voter participation and the common call for change – is an indication of the history we can continue to make together.”

High turnout among working-class union voters in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan formed a foundation of support for Obama. In new battleground states like Colorado, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida, Sweeney said the AFL-CIO mounted a bigger effort than ever before, voting by large margins for Obama, and “joined young people and other new voters to build a new majority for economic fairness.” AFL-CIO union members across battleground states supported Obama by a whopping 68-30 margin, according to an election night survey conducted for the AFL-CIO by Peter D. Hart Research Associates.

“More than 250,000 union volunteers took to the streets in the largest independent voter mobilization in history,” AFL-CIO Political Committee Chair and AFSCME President Gerald McEntee said. “People volunteered because they want a President who will fight for America’s working families. In the critical battleground states, workers gave Sen. Obama the winning edge.”

Other key findings from the election-night survey include:

· Obama won among white men who are union members by 18 points while losing that group by 16 points in the general public;

· Obama won among union gun owners by a 12-point margin while losing that group in the general public by 25 points;

· Union veterans voted for Obama by a 25-point margin. He lost among that group in the general public by nine points;

 · Working America members voted 67-30 for Obama. Working America gun owners (33% own guns) voted 23 points for Obama; general public gun owners voted 25 points for McCain;

 · Sixty percent of union members identified the economy and jobs as their top issue with 84 percent saying strengthening the economy was the most important factor in their vote;

· Union members identified protecting pensions and Social Security and reducing health care costs as the top priorities for the new Administration; Seventy-five percent say the new President and Congress has a mandate to strengthen the economy, create jobs, and reform health care;

· Eighty-one percent of union members support passing the Employee Free Choice Act

The record mobilization for this election won’t end on election day, AFL-CIO leaders said.

“The election is just step one in delivering the change we need,” Sweeney said. “Working men and women are poised to keep the energy pumping to help the Obama administration lead the change we need. There will be no gap or letdown.”

Working families’ immediate and long-term priorities include:

· A broad-based economic recovery package in the short term that provides aid to cash-strapped local and state governments to maintain vital services, extends unemployment benefits and increases funding for food stamps to provide relief to working families who are hurting during the economic downturn and invests in infrastructure spending to rebuild our crumbling roads, bridges and schools and put people to work ;

· Restoring workers’ freedom to join unions and bargain with their employers for better wages and benefits by passing the Employee Free Choice Act;

· Reforming our broken health care system to cut costs for families, increase access to quality care and provide coverage to the nearly 50 million Americans without health insurance;

· Investing in America’s future and create a new economy of good, green jobs through long-term infrastructure projects; education and skills; and clean, renewable, home-grown energy;

· Re-regulating Wall Street to restore the integrity of the banking and financial sectors and protect working people’s hard earned money - - their pensions, savings and homes;

· Developing a new model for fair trade that will restore American competitiveness and protect good jobs at home and worker’s rights around the world;

· Enacting broad-based tax reform to end tax giveaways for the wealthy and corporations that outsource American jobs.

This year’s campaign was the largest, broadest and most targeted effort in AFL-CIO history. The program reached union members, members of union households, retirees and members of Working America, the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate for workers who don’t have a union on the job. In all, the AFL-CIO’s program reached out to more than 13 million union voters in 24 battleground states. The AFL-CIO was engaged in 13 Senate races, 60 House contests as well as the presidential race.

More than 250,000 AFL-CIO volunteers gave up countless evenings and weekends throughout the course of this campaign to talk to co-workers, neighbors and other union members about the stakes in this election. In the final four days of the election, the AFL-CIO’s “Final Four” GOTV program reached millions of union voters in battleground states.

Over the course of the campaign, volunteers made 76 million phone calls, knocked on 14 million doors and delivered 29 million flyers at worksites. The AFL-CIO and its affiliate unions sent 57 million pieces of mail to union households this year. As a result of this effort, 84 percent of union members in battleground states said they heard from their union this election cycle.

Working America played a central role in delivering working-class union voters this election. Working America grew to 2.5 million members this year, including 800,000 members in Ohio alone. The organization ran a year-long mobilization, engaging its members – mostly working-class moderates and independents -- on health care, green jobs and other issues important to working families. In the final days before the election, more than 1,000 full-time canvassers fanned out across 11 battleground states. In total, Working America knocked on 1.65 million doors to encourage members to vote and educate them on the candidates’ positions on working family issues.

The 2008 effort relied heavily on sophisticated targeting designed to increase voter turnout for Obama and other working family candidates among exurban and rural voters in key states. Since identifying more than 3 million undecided voters in August, the AFL-CIO’s intense communications among swing groups like retirees, veterans and gun owners shifted the landscape in states such as Ohio.

The AFL-CIO also carried out a nine-state voter protection program to ensure every vote would count on Election Day. The My Vote, My Right voting rights protection program worked for several months to educate citizens about their voting rights, train polling monitors and worked closely with Secretaries of State on election administration plans, AFL-CIO Political Director Karen Ackerman said. On Election Day, the program deployed more than 2,700 volunteer polling monitors nationwide, including 800 in Michigan and 500 in both Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The AFL-CIO is the nation’s largest umbrella organization of unions, representing 10.5 million working men and women nationwide.

Contact: Steve Smith, Alison Omens

Largest Mobilization in Union Movement’s History Shifts Into Overdrive for Final Four Days
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney: “We’re Turning Around America”

The AFL-CIO and its community affiliate Working America will unleash an unprecedented “Final Four” get-out-the-vote (GOTV) effort in the final four days of the election to reach more than 13 million union voters in 21 presidential battleground states as part of a historic drive to change America’s direction, the federation announced today.

Beginning Saturday, tens of thousands of AFL-CIO volunteers will visit more than 3.9 million union households, make 5.5 million calls and distribute more than 2 million leaflets at worksites through Election Day urging union voters to get to the polls in support of working family candidates on November 4.

“This unprecedented effort is the culmination of months of hard work by hundreds of thousands of union volunteers who are leading the fight to turn around America,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. “Heading down the homestretch, there’s more grassroots energy and enthusiasm for change among working families than ever before. We’re hitting critical mass at precisely the right time.”

The GOTV blitz is the final phase of a mobilization that has deployed an army of 250,000 union volunteers this year. The AFL-CIO GOTV program is the largest independent turnout program in the nation, aimed at electing candidates who will champion working families’ priorities.

A key component of this year’s Final Four push is Working America, the AFL-CIO community affiliate for workers without a union on the job. In the final four days, Working America will deploy 1,000 full-time canvassers in 11 battleground states to knock on more than 300,000 doors. Working America’s effort is the capstone push of a year-round campaign aimed at engaging its 2.5 million members, many of whom are independents and moderate “Reagan Democrats,” on economic issues.

The 2008 GOTV effort relies heavily on sophisticated targeting designed to increase voter turnout among exurban and rural voters in key states. The effort comes on the heels of a months-long targeted approach to these voters through mail, phones, front-porch visits and email. Since identifying more than 3 million undecided voters in August, the AFL-CIO’s intense communications among swing groups like retirees, veterans and gun owners have shifted the landscape in states such as Ohio.

Since mid-August, according to AFL-CIO polling, support for Sen. Obama among union members has increased dramatically as the AFL-CIO grassroots mobilization has gained intensity. In Ohio, Obama now has a 29-point advantage (61%-32%) over McCain among union members, an improvement of 16 points since August. In Pennsylvania, Obama’s support has risen 22 points to a 63%-27% advantage. In Michigan, Obama now holds a commanding 68%-23% lead among union members, up 26 points.

Union support is seen as crucial to Obama in the Rust Belt states as union voters are expected to comprise 25%-35% of the overall electorate in those states on November 4.

“We’re seeing a wave of support for Sen. Obama among union voters as they learn more about his positions on the issues they care about and contrast those positions to Sen. McCain’s failed proposals,” AFL-CIO Political Director Karen Ackerman said. “But this is no time to let up. We’re going full throttle this weekend to ensure every union voter knows just how critical a vote on Election Day is to our country’s future.”

The elements of the overall GOTV program include:

·  A 21-state presidential battleground program, the broadest ever. In recent weeks the AFL-CIO has shifted resources and manpower to non-traditional battleground states like North Carolina, Indiana and West Virginia, while maintaining an intense effort in the top-tier states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan;

·  More member contact than ever before. To date, AFL-CIO union voters have received 70 million phone calls, 10 million door knocks, 57 million pieces of mail and 27 million worksite fliers focusing on economic issues;

·  4,000 paid staff working on the AFL-CIO mobilization nationwide;

·  A nine-state voter protection program to address voting rights abuses and prevent voting rights violations on Election Day.

The final GOTV push is part of a $250 million grassroots mobilization by the AFL-CIO and its 56 affiliated unions.

Here’s what AFL-CIO volunteers around the country are saying about the final push to talk to their co-workers, neighbors and fellow union members about the stakes in this election:

Gerrard Strutt, Bus Operator, Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 85 (Pittsburgh, PA)
“The economy scares me to death. I am worried about health care and the future of my job and my family. I am knocking on doors and making calls here in Pittsburgh because I believe that union members trust each other and are more likely to hear a message about how important it is to vote from another union member. Member-to-member contact is the most powerful means of engagement we have.”

Dave McCloskey, Mail Handler, National Postal Mail Handlers Union, Local 301 (Manchester, NH)
“Recently I underwent an emergency medical procedure, but luckily my health care plan paid 90 percent of my medical bills. It’s hard to believe that 47 million people in this country still don’t have health care. Due to my condition, I’m not supposed to be out of the house very often, but I feel it’s important to volunteer and do my part for the Americans that aren’t as fortunate as I am.

Deb Breneman, Office and Administrative Specialist, AFSCME Local 4001 (St. Cloud, Minnesota)
“I grew up under the philosophy that if you don’t get involved, you don’t get to complain. We just need to keep talking to people about this election. They’re our neighbors, so for us to be making these phone calls, it means more to them than some guy in Duluth or some guy in St. Paul.”

Joe Mailey, Sheet Metal Worker, Sheet Metal Workers International Association, Local 17 (Auburn, Maine)
“It’s time we had leaders in Washington to stick up for the middle class. I do a lot of phone banking, labor walks, leafleting, and I helped send out local union mail. When I talk with union members, I tell them that we are heading towards a wall, and if we hit it we are going to crash hard.”

Reporters are invited to meet up with AFL-CIO officers at any location.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney

Wed., Oct. 22: Indianapolis, IN
Thurs., Oct 23: Cincinnati, OH
Fri., Oct 24: Pittsburgh, PA

AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas. Rich Trumka

Wed., Oct. 22: Las Vegas, NV
Thurs., Oct 23: Albuquerque, NM
Fri., Oct. 24: Columbus, OH
Sat., Oct. 25: Cleveland, OH

AFL-CIO Exec. VP Arlene Holt Baker

Mon., Oct. 20: Miami, FL
Tues., Oct. 21: Jackson, MS
Fri., Oct. 24: Atlanta, GA (tent.)

Contact: Alison Omens

Nonpartisan coalition efforts focused on public education, election administration advocacy, polling place support, and legal advice in nine target states 

In anticipation of record turnout at the polls this Election Day, the AFL-CIO is working in nine states – Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Virginia, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada – to educate citizens about their voting rights and help prevent voting rights violations. Members of AFL-CIO unions and labor groups are participating in the AFL-CIO’s “My Vote, My Right” program in coalition with civil rights organizations, faith groups, local lawyers, and other community allies.

“It’s time to turn around America, and we will start by protecting our right to vote and making sure that every single vote is counted,” said AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker. “A truly historic election day is going to come down to individual voters who should do everything we can to protect our own right to vote—and those of our friends and neighbors.”

The AFL-CIO-led voter protection coalition’s efforts are centered on three main components: a public education program informing voters about their voting rights, meetings with local election officials and Secretary of States about election administration plans, and recruitment and training of volunteer poll monitors and poll workers. The group plans to address voting rights issues in 27 communities, including Cleveland, Columbus, and Toledo, Ohio, Detroit and Flint, Michigan, St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Denver, Colorado, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Richmond and the Tidewater area of Virginia.

The AFL-CIO points to numerous studies indicating that voting rights will be at risk this year. A study of the 2008 presidential primaries conducted by the Pew Center on the States found that polls in parts of California, Ohio, and the District of Columbia ran out of paper ballots as early as noon because of unusually high voter turnout. A study by Common Cause and the Century Foundation examining progress in voter issues since 2006 in ten key states concluded that “several [states] still have a number of structural and statutory weaknesses that put voting rights at risk once again this year.”

Examples of the AFL-CIO and its affiliate union’s voter education work include:

A “Voter Bill of Rights” flier describing state and federal voting rights laws, which by Election Day will be distributed to more than 600,000 voters nationwide, including more than 100,000 flyers each in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Missouri;

Volunteers in Michigan and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania are knocking on doors in key precincts to educate thousands of voters about their rights;

In Detroit, members of AFL-CIO affiliated unions the Amalgamated Transit Union and the United Steelworkers are passing out bookmarks with voting rights information to bus riders.

The AFL-CIO partnered with ‘Rock the Vote’ to distribute 10,000 “Student Voter Bill of Rights” fliers at concerts held to register student voters at five Ohio college campuses in Sept.;

The American Federation of Government Employees, an AFL-CIO affiliate union, is operating two web pages on popular social networking sites — MySpace and Facebook — providing students with “student voting tips,” links to resources such as the state board of elections websites, and information for students in the major swing states;

AFL-CIO voter protection activists are referring voters to the toll-free voting rights hotline operated by the Election Protection coalition,1-866-OUR-VOTE, to check their registration and report problems.

The AFL-CIO voter protection program is also recruiting and training union volunteers to serve as nonpartisan poll workers and poll monitors on Election Day, helping to address voting problems including long lines, misuse of provisional ballots, and demands for voter IDs which are not mandated by law. The volunteers will be thoroughly trained on federal, state and local election laws. On Election Day, poll monitors will be deployed outside of polling places where they will be available to answer voters’ questions about their rights and help resolve any problems voters may encounter.

Hundreds of AFL-CIO union members and retirees have been recruited to work as poll workers in Franklin County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and St. Louis. In Kansas City, Missouri, the AFL-CIO has and its coalition partners have initiated a program to recruit public high school students to monitor polling places near their school.

Finally, AFL-CIO and its coalition partners are coordinating with local election officials on their election administration plans. For example:

In Pueblo, Colorado, the voter protection coalition met with county election officials to work on strategies to reduce the lines at the polls and convinced them to send out an absentee ballot application to every registered voter in the county;

In Pennsylvania, the voting rights coalition has been advocating the Secretary of State for a policy that would ensure each polling place has sufficient emergency paper ballots on hand Election Day and would require paper ballots if more than 50 percent of the voting machines break down.

The AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee (LCC) attorneys have also been active in the nine target states:

In response to the widely-reported plan by Macomb County, Michigan Republican party officials to challenge the right to vote of homeowners who recently had their homes foreclosed, LCC attorney Mary Ellen Gurewitz assisted in the filing of a lawsuit to challenge the legality of this ‘caging’ operation, which would have disproportionately effected African American voters in the state;

In New Mexico, the local voting rights coalition worked with an LCC attorney to convince the Secretary of State to adopt a poster in polling places across the state listing the types of IDs mandated by law;

LCC lawyers in Wisconsin filed a motion on behalf of Milwaukee Branch of NAACP and Milwaukee Teachers Education Association against the Attorney General’s decision to purge voters from the rolls if their driver’s license records didn’t match their voter records.

Contact: Rachele Huennekens

AFL-CIO Affiliate Kicks Off Final Phase of Massive Grassroots Campaign with Mailer to a Million Households Highlighting McCain’s Disastrous Economic Policies

(Washington, October 6) -- Working America – the AFL-CIO’s grassroots organization for workers without a union on the job – announced today a massive new effort to mobilize its 2.5 million members between now and Election Day, mostly in battleground states, in support of working family candidates.

The final push by Working America to engage independent and moderate blue-collar voters kicks off today with a new mailer going to 1 million households in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and other battleground states. The mailer highlights John McCain’s disastrous economic proposals and his support of deregulating the financial sector, which led to the Wall Street meltdown and $700 billion taxpayer bailout. “Republican John McCain: An Economic Disaster for the Middle Class,” the mailer reads.

The new effort, which is part of the AFL-CIO’s overall political effort in 2008, builds on Working America’s ongoing campaign to engage blue-collar workers on economic issues. Between now and Election Day, canvassers will reach more than 100,000 members per week at the door, focusing on where the candidates stand on the economic issues working family voters care about the most.

Working America fights 365 days a year to advance the economic interests of working families through issue education, legislative advocacy, and political mobilization.  This year, the group’s membership will play a pivotal role in the presidential election.  Many of the group’s members are the so-called “Reagan Democrat” and independent voters, in states like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, who have been ravaged by the loss of traditional manufacturing jobs and the souring economy. 

Among active Working America members:

• 84% make less than $60,000;
• 78% are white;
• 63% don’t have a college degree;
• 62% do not have a strong party affiliation;
• 61% are 40 years or older;
• 41% attend church at least weekly;
• 32% own guns.

“Make no mistake, this election hinges on economic concerns,” said Karen Nussbaum, Executive Director Working America.  “Working America is reaching 100,000 people each week by appealing to their economic interests rather than their fears. Every day, we’re making sure our members in key battleground states know exactly what the stakes are in this election.”

The Working America effort relies heavily on person-to-person contact through home visits and phone calls to inform members on candidates’ positions on core economic issues like good jobs, health care and retirement security.  The organization has grown dramatically since 2004, when it had 800,000 members nationwide.  Since then, the group’s recruitment efforts have pushed the total membership to 2.5 million.

Working America’s electoral outreach program is part of the AFL-CIO’s largest grassroots mobilization in history. The AFL-CIO is currently mobilizing 13 million voters in 24 priority states in support of candidates who stand with working families.  In addition to the presidential race, the AFL-CIO is engaged in 11 Senate races and more than 60 House races.  All told, the AFL-CIO is engaged in 510 races nationwide, including state legislative elections.

For a PDF copy of the new mailer, please contact 202-637-5018.

The AFL-CIO launched Working America in late 2003 as a new affiliate for working people who do not have a union on the job. The organization now has 2.5 million members. Working America is the nation’s fastest-growing organization for working families. For more information, visit www.workingamerica.org/index.cfm.

Contact:  Steve Smith

Focusing on John McCain’s plan to tax employer-based health care, the AFL-CIO today launched a new campaign to reach out to more than 1 million union swing voters in battleground states through mail, phone calls and worksite and door visits, urging them to reject McCain’s proposals. The effort is heavily targeted to union swing voters – many of whom are moderate Democrats and Independents – in key states like Ohio and Pennsylvania.

“Taxing health care benefits would be a bad idea anytime, but John McCain’s proposal to place an additional financial burden on the middle class during a once-in-a-lifetime economic crisis shows just how profoundly out of touch he is,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. “His risky health care scheme would neither improve access to care nor reduce costs on struggling families. The bottom line is that McCain’s huge new tax on working families’ health care would be the straw that breaks the back of our middle-class.”

The AFL-CIO begins a new wave of communication today to union swing voters in Colorado, Virginia, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Florida with a mail piece highlighting McCain’s wrong-headed health care plan. McCain’s proposal would create a record-level new tax on the middle-class but do nothing to reduce costs on working families or provide coverage to the more than 46 million without it. Analysts agree that the McCain plan would push more families into the private market to buy health insurance on their own.

The mail, featuring a testimonial from Ohio union worker Dave Fecke, says McCain’s plan would also allow insurance companies to deny coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions and destroy Medicare by privatizing it, a plan similar to a failed proposal McCain and President Bush pushed to privatize Social Security.

“McCain’s practically had free health care his whole life,” Fecke says in the mail piece. “He doesn’t understand how hard it would be for my family to pay more.”

In addition to the mail, this week AFL-CIO volunteers will distribute more than 1 million leaflets at worksites on McCain’s health care record and plans, and they will make more than 150,000 phone calls. On Saturday, more than 5,000 volunteers will visit the homes of swing voters in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

The effort is part of the largest grassroots mobilization in the AFL-CIO’s history. The AFL-CIO is currently mobilizing 13 million voters in 24 priority states in support of candidates who stand with working families. In addition to the presidential race, the AFL-CIO is engaged in 11 Senate races and more than 60 House races. All told, the AFL-CIO is working in 510 races nationwide, including state legislative elections.

For a PDF copy of the mailer, please contact 202-637-5018

Contact: Steve Smith

On the 114th American celebration of Labor Day, AFL-CIO working families in hundreds of cities around the nation will join together at Labor Day rallies, parades, picnics, festivals, cookouts, and religious services under the banner of Turn Around America.  Pointing out that the middle class is shrinking quickly and dramatically, AFL-CIO union members and their families will highlight the need for an economy that works for all – not just a few.   They will pledge to work harder than ever before to elect leaders in November who will change the direction of the country and address the urgent the economic concerns working families face.

“This Labor Day, from coast to coast, working people are ready to turn out in droves to work for candidates who are ready to turn around our economy and turn around America,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.  “America’s voters are faced with a fundamental choice: to continue down the road we've taken and end up in a swamp of inequality where corporations and the wealthy always get more – or to turn around America, and ensure health care for all, fair trade, the freedom to improve our lives through unions, and a fair share of the wealth that working people create.”

On Monday, working men and women in places as wide-ranging as Fairbanks, Alaska, to Urbana, Illinois, to Daytona, Florida, will participate in more than 200 Labor Day celebrations and observances.  AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker and other union leaders will be joining thousands of local working families at major Labor Day events in Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Michigan.

The Labor Day celebrations will serve to energize and involve union members and their families in the AFL-CIO Labor 2008 grassroots political mobilization effort.  For example, at the Allegheny, Pennsylvania Labor Day festival, working families will enjoy live entertainment and listen to speakers including elected officials and union leaders calling for universal health care, good jobs, fair trade deals, and the freedom for workers to join with their coworkers to form unions.   The AFL-CIO’s grassroots mobilization is focused on engaging more than 13 million voters in 24 priority battleground states around candidates’ stances on economic issues such as health care, job creation, retirement security, and energy.

Many of the Labor Day observances will center on efforts to defend the Employee Free Choice Act – a bill that would restore workers’ freedom form or join unions to bargain for better lives.  The bill is under intense attack from corporate interests who favor the current company-dominated system and want to maintain the status quo.  Today, according to academic studies, a quarter of private sector employers illegally fire at least one worker during a union organizing campaign.  The Employee Free Choice Act would restore workers’ freedom of choice by strengthening penalties for companies that coerce or intimidate employees, ensuring that workers have a fair chance at winning a contract to guarantee their wages and benefits, and removing barriers to workers who want to form a union by enabling them to organize a union when a majority signs union authorization cards.

Labor Day will mark a pivotal point in the labor movement’s effort to turn around America.  Beginning Monday, the AFL-CIO member mobilization program will kick into high gear.  More than a quarter million AFL-CIO union volunteers will go door-to-door in more than 100 cities, knock on more than ten million doors, make more than 70 million telephone calls, participate in local community coalitions to ensure that voters rights are protected, and talk to their coworkers at over 20 million worksites.  The AFL-CIO will be actively engaged in more than 510 races nationwide. In a number of key states, including Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, AFL-CIO union household voters will make up a significant portion of the electorate on Election Day.

Contact: Rachele Huennekens