Sweeney: Union Voters Were the Firewall That Stopped McCain

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

"It was like nothing I've ever seen before," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney at a post-election press briefing on Wednesday. "Over 250,000 union volunteers visited 3.9 million union households and distributed more than 2 million leaflets. The result is that union households turned out in huge numbers and voted for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.  Union voters were the firewall that stopped John McCain."  Guy Molyneaux of Hart Research Associates confirmed Sweeney's analysis. In ten battleground states, he said, polling shows that Obama's lead was bolstered significantly by union voters, nearly all of whom were reached by the AFL-CIO's volunteer activists. And these union voters, Molyneux said, shared a common reason to vote Obama: "The economy is now the transcendent issue," he said. Sweeney called Obama's decisive election "one of the brightest days for working people" but said the AFL-CIO stands ready to continue fighting for a working families agenda. That agenda, said Sweeney, includes speedy passage of an economic stimulus bill "that will jumpstart the economy and put America back to work." Such a package, Sweeney said, must include additional unemployment benefits, an expansion of food stamps, support for state and local governments to create jobs by rebuilding crumbling roads and bridges, and good, green jobs instead of financial bubbles. Also on the AFL-CIO's agenda are passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (of which both Obama and Biden are co-sponsors), and an overhaul of the country's health care system. With such important national policy questions on the table, Sweeney said, "there will be no letdown" in organized labor's efforts now that Obama is President-elect. “Working men and women are poised to keep the energy pumping to help the Obama administration lead the change we need," he said. Click here to read Sweeney’s full statement.
- Mariya Strauss, International Labor Communications Association