Fighting Back: New Congress, New Hope For America's Workers

From talk shows to Capitol Hill, Washington's incoming freshman class is already changing the national conversation.

With pro-worker majorities in both houses of Congress for the first time in 12 years — victories that wouldn't have happened without union members' hard work — CWA's major goals are getting attention: good jobs, health care for all, retirement security and collective bargaining and organizing rights.

New Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has pledged to make the Employee Free Choice Act — protecting workers' rights to collective bargaining — a top priority. And in both houses of Congress, members are taking strong stands for workers and working families.

• "I knew that if we could get the Senate, we could start talking about more than blocking bad deals like NAFTA and CAFTA. We could begin to implement a fair-trade agenda that emphasizes protecting workers, the environment, human rights, communities in the U.S. and abroad." — Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, quoted in "The Nation."
  
  
• "There's no more middle class. The working poor aren't even being addressed. Those are the people who brought us here (to Congress) and they need to be empowered. It's time to show them attention." — Montana Sen. Jon Tester on "Meet the Press."
  
  
• "Middle class Americans are increasingly squeezed between declining paychecks and rising bills for basic items like housing, healthcare, college tuition, and energy. And millions of Americans still do not have a real opportunity to join the middle class in the first place." — Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), who has pledged to push for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

"For the first time since the most anti-worker administration in modern history took office six years ago, CWA members and working families across our country have reason to be hopeful about the political agenda on Capitol Hill," CWA President Larry Cohen said. "Together, we worked to defeat the politics of greed and a government responsive only to big business and big money."

But he stressed that winning the election — restoring the U.S. House and Senate to pro-worker leadership, as well as a majority of governorships and state houses — is only the beginning of a lot of hard work.

"As we move forward on a real agenda for change for working families, we will hold our newly elected officials accountable for the decisions they make," Cohen said. "And we must mobilize like we haven't done in years to keep our issues front and center."

The Union Difference

The union movement's get-out-the-vote campaign was the difference on Nov. 7, with exit polls and a national AFL-CIO survey showing that union families accounted for four-fifths of the victory margin for union-endorsed candidates.

For weeks leading up to Election Day, 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 and to local and state offices. CWA members also turned out in force on Election Day for a final get-out-the-vote push.

"Our members changed history," said CWA Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach, who coordinated CWA's campaign efforts. "The fact is, without the thousands of volunteer hours on nights and weekends by CWA members and our union brothers and sisters across this country, we would still be facing a congressional majority hostile to the rights and needs of working Americans."

In addition to Brown, Tester and Webb, the vast majority of candidates CWA supported won, including newly elected Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey and N.J. Sen. Bob Menendez. In the U.S. House, Democrats picked up 30 seats and the majority, giving pro-worker legislation a chance to get to the floor for the first time since 1994.

Democrats also took back nine statehouses and minimum wage hikes were passed in six states, among a long list of successes for working families. CWA-backed candidates also took over governor's houses in Maryland, Ohio, Colorado, New York, Massachusetts and Arkansas.

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 the AFL-CIO-led efforts. 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.

Additionally, the AFL-CIO's voter protection program turned out hundreds of volunteers in 23 communities in six battleground states to educate citizens about their voting rights and help prevent the kinds of violations that marred the 2000 presidential election. The program focused on Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington and partnered closely with community groups and lawyers to provide election day support.