Mission accomplished: Labor kicks ass

It was not only labor’s message but its messengers who achieved that goal, said AFL-CIO Political Action Director Karen Ackerman. “Union members talked to union members,” she said. An army of 200,000 such “trusted messengers” knocked on 8 million doors and burned up the phone lines with 30 million calls — “mostly at dinner time,” she allowed with a smile.

Through a “targeted, focused, extensive political program we spoke to exactly the people we needed to,” she said. Much of the margin of victory would be found in “drop-off voters” — those who voted in the presidential election in 2004 but had not turned out in the last midterm contest in 2002. There were half a million such voters in Ohio alone. While sophisticated “micro-targeting” techniques identified these voters, it was fellow union members who contacted each such voter 20 to 25 times over the last year — at work, at home, by phone or by mail. The volunteers went directly to union members and their families with information, not rhetoric, on critical issues like the economy and Social Security.

“We met and exceeded all of our targets,” said Ackerman. Three-quarters of union members supported union-endorsed candidates in the congressional races.

The Democratic margin of victory in all congressional races was 6.8 million, she said, and the percent of voters from union households voting. Democratic provided 5.6 million of that margin, or 80 percent. The union vote figures include active workers, retirees, family members and the 1.5 million members of Working America, the new AFL-CIO affiliate for those who have no unions in their workplace.

“We were by far the most powerful turnout engine on the progressive side,” said Sweeney.

Sweeney made clear that the battle hasn’t ended with changing control of Congress. “We have no intention of depending naively on the Democrats to lead the way toward the changes working families showed they want,” he declared. Sweeney vowed to “keep up our campaign and keep working people working together to demand that Congress take decisive action.

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