America’s labor unions, their futures dependent on changing the political landscape, began their get-out-the-vote campaign for November’s mid-term election in June, says AFL-CIO chief.
With America’s labor unions facing an increasingly uncertain future, unions are staking their future survival on political outcomes.
Unions leaderships in Washington and across the country have realized that the only way they can survive and revive is through government paternalism and, right now, the biggest thing on nearly all unions’ agenda is getting as many as their political benefactors into office in the mid-term elections.
While unions pour hundreds of millions of dollars into every election cycle, it appears that they’ll be spending even more than normal this year on ensuring their army is mobilized.
In fact, according to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, labor has had its army mobilized since June.
At an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka detailed the labor federation’s get-out-the-vote efforts for the mid-term elections.
…Trumka voiced confidence in Democrats’ prospects and in labor’s influence. But partly that’s because unions aren’t taking members’ support of union-endorsed candidates for granted.
The candidates themselves have a role to play, he added.
Throughout the country, most local unions engage their members year round on political issues.
Between Working America and the efforts of local AFL-CIO unions, as well as independent unions like the Carpenters, NEA, SEIU, and Teamsters, unions may have their biggest voter turnout in decades.