by Seth Michaels, Jul 24, 2008
In his video introduction submitted to last year’s AFL-CIO Presidential Candidates Forum, Sen. Barack Obama laid out some of his personal history and connected it to why he’s running for president. It’s worth watching again now that he’s the Democratic presumptive presidential nominee. As he said:
I worked as a community organizer for a group of churches, helping to turn around neighborhoods that were devastated by the closing of steel plants. By bringing people together, we set up job-training and after-school programs, and we taught people to stand up to their government when it wasn’t standing up for them. That’s the kind of organizing we need today.
In the video, Obama said health care, good wages, a secure retirement and the freedom to form unions are at the heart of the change the country needs, and he’s continued to focus on these issues in the general election campaign.
This is why the AFL-CIO endorsed Obama last month: because he’s a candidate who understands, cares about and will fight for working families.
Around the country, union members are responding by getting involved in the AFL-CIO’s Labor 2008 program, a historic effort to mobilize millions of workers, retirees and family members to elect a pro-working family president and Congress. They’re carrying out the most effective kind of mobilization—union member-to-member contacts, at worksites, doors and union meetings.
With close races in swing states around the country, union voters will make the difference this fall. Every vote will be important.
Tom Callahan, an Air Traffic Controllers (NATCA) member in New Hampshire, is one of the union members taking part in the Labor 2008 effort.
I think the most important question each one of us can ask about the candidate we’re going to vote for in November is, “Is this a person I can believe in?”
He [Obama] really does care. He really is committed. He really has been there, and he’s talking about our issues.
Callahan says Obama is on the side of workers on a number of issues. Obama is a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act and says he would sign it as president. His health care proposal would give everyone the opportunity to get secure, high-quality health care coverage. And he wants to invest in energy to create jobs and lower energy prices rather than giving massive tax breaks to Big Oil.
Steve Sarno, president of IBEW Local 126 in southeastern Pennsylvania, says Obama has the judgment to reverse nearly a decade of the Bush agenda, which has failed working families.
What he’s talking about is looking at failed policies, taking a look at the failed trade agreements, seeing what’s unfair about them. Getting rid of tax breaks for those companies that are opening up manufacturing plants out of our country. We’re talking about creating a middle class again here in the United States–taking away those big tax breaks for the most wealthy in the country and giving back to the people working every day.
Dolores Gerber, a CWA member from Virginia, says that after the last eight years of the Bush agenda, it’s more important than ever to get out the vote and elect a president who will put working families first. Gerber says Obama is that candidate.
The past eight years have been horrible for working families. So that’s the thing we really want to see, where Obama is going to stand. And he’s been very clear about his willingness to help working families.
I’m excited. I just think he’s going to bring a change to this country that we so desperately need.
Jess Clark, an AFT member in New Hampshire, is enthusiastic about getting involved in this election and mobilizing working families because of the high stakes and the need for change.
I think now is the time we can change New Hampshire and achieve the American dream for our members, and for our kids. I think this is our opportunity to make our contribution.
This will be a tough and critical election, and union members like these will be working hard around the country to make sure union members are educated, mobilized and energized to turn around America this fall by electing Obama.