Steve Beshear Makes His Final Campaign Stop With the AFL-CIO

[Omaha Steve]

Run time: 00:45 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3jcOgF_ex4   Posted on YouTube: November 06, 2007 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: November 08, 2007 By DU Member: Omaha Steve Views on DU: 475

 

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/11/07/when-working-families-vote-working-families-win/

In an off-year election season, what happens when thousands of union volunteers take to the neighborhoods, worksites and phonebanks to talk with union family voters about issues? Dan Duncan, president of the Northern Virginia Central Labor Council had the answer yesterday.

We’re seeing presidential year turn out!

The union movement’s week-after-week, get-out-the-vote effort in Virginia, Kentucky, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and elsewhere paid off big time for working families on Election Day this year.

In Kentucky, anti-worker incumbent Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R) is looking for a new job. Bluegrass State union members voted in former Lt. Gov. Steve Beshear, whose support for working family issues contrasts sharply with those of Fletcher, who cancelled collective bargaining rights for state workers, privatized the state’s Medicaid program and attacked workers’ wages.

Union voters supported Beshear by a margin of 77 percent to 21 percent, according to an independent election night survey. Union household voters were estimated to be one in four voters at the polls. Fifty-eight percent of voters cited the economy, education, or healthcare as their top reason for voting for Beshear. (Find out what else Kentucky union voters have to say here, where we highlight the election night survey results.)

Says Kentucky AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan:

Kentuckians were sick and tired of a governor who didn’t stand with them. From the beginning Gov. Fletcher stood in opposition to all working family priorities.

Here are some amazing facts and figures about the Kentucky volunteer efforts of more than 7,000 union members who took part in Labor 2007.

* Union members distributed more than 465,000 worksite and door leaflets—including 65,000 on Election Day.
* In the “Final Four” days push to get out the vote, 2,100 union volunteers made 75,000 GOTV phone calls.
* This past Saturday alone, 440 union members knocked on the doors of more than 8,000 union homes. That’s in addition to the thousands of other union volunteers who walked the weekends leading up to the election or the union movement’s Bluegrass Express bus tour that criss-crossed the state, with participants distributing 45,000 worksite fliers along the way.

Faye Lieberman, a retired member of the Communications Workers (CWA) told a post-election tele-press conference she is worried that her three daughters can’t afford quality health and the cost of education may be out reach for her nine grandchildren. That was why she volunteered for Kentucky’s Labor 2007 mobilization.

I volunteered my time to get candidates elected who understand what my family is going through…Now I look forward to ditching Mitch McConnell in 2008.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney told reporters:

Yesterday’s elections showed how energized working people are to change the course of our country. Working people are driving a major change in the political landscape that’s growing larger every day.

We’re on the cusp of a shift that could redefine American politics for decades to come. Working people want real health care reform that covers every American. They want their freedom to form and join unions restored. They want to stop the hemorrhaging of good, middle-class supporting jobs out of the country and they want a secure retirement.

FULL story at link.

[JoeySoCal]

1. Looks like a real decent and genuine fellow.

Awesome to have him aboard.

[JoeySoCal]

2. Good job, Kentucky.