Election 2006: Union Volunteers Change History

The union movement's get-out-the-vote campaign made all the difference Tuesday, with exit polls and a national AFL-CIO survey showing that union families accounted for four-fifths of the Democratic victory margin.

For weeks leading up to Election Day Nov. 7, thousands of CWA members across the country knocked on doors, made phone calls, passed out leaflets and more to elect worker-friendly candidates to the U.S. House and Senate, Governors' seats and local and state offices. CWA members also turned out in force on Election Day for a final GOTV push.

The vast majority of candidates who CWA supported won, including newly elected Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin and N.J. Sen. Bob Menendez, along with candidates in numerous house races. CWA-backed candidates also took over governor's seats in Maryland, Ohio, Colorado, New York, Massachusetts and Arkansas.

Democrats picked up at least 27 seats in the U.S. House and, six seats in the Senate and nine statehouses. Minimum wage hikes were passed in six states.

Brown, presently an Ohio congressman who, with a strong record on labor, said to cheering voters in Cleveland on Tuesday night that, "Today in Ohio — the middle of America — the middle class won." Across the country, winning Democrats echoed that theme.

The AFL-CIO's get-out-the-vote program reached out to 13.4 million voters in 32 battleground states. More than 90 percent of union members polled in those states said they heard from their union during the election cycle.

CWA members were among more than 205,000 union members who volunteered for labor's political program this year. Union members knocked on more than 8.25 million doors, made 30 million phone calls and passed out more than 14 million leaflets at workplaces and in neighborhoods.

CWA and other unions concentrated heavily on turning out "drop-off" voters — voters who usually don't turn out in mid-term elections. The program reached these voters as many as 25 times through a schedule of worksite contacts, phone calls, mail and home visits. Labor reached out to 496,000 drop-off voters in Ohio alone.