WASHINGTON—From constant contact with its large ground game of activists and canvassers, the AFL-CIO reports a huge groundswell and a large lead for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris among unionists and their families.
But unionists will keep pounding the pavements, making the phone calls, and distributing union literature about kitchen-table issues, federation President Liz Shuler said in an hour-and-a-half press conference on October 18, discussing election prospects and issues that move voters.
That’s because, as Shuler said, unionists and their families make up a fifth of the electorate in the key swing states of Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
“We have [Republican nominee Donald] Trump at around 19% and Harris at around 64% in our field numbers, with the rest undecided,” Shuler said near the end of the discussion. “But we’re still talking to every member.
The road runs through union halls
“The road to the White House, the road to the Senate, the road to the House, and the road to state legislatures runs through union halls,” she declared.
Shuler explained that “economic issues like overtime pay,” resonate with the voters—union and non-union—whom federation canvassers talk with on job sites, over the phone, and door-to-door.
Canvassers are pushing contrasts between the two parties, stressing records in job creation, infrastructure, and, Shuler said, freedom.
For working women, she added, reproductive rights resonate, and it works against Trump. He nominated the three Supreme Court justices whose votes were the core of the decision two years ago that demolished the national right to abortion and threatened other reproductive care.
“Reproductive health is an economic issue” along with pay, paid leave, and especially affordable child care, Shuler said. “And it shows the difference between these two candidates. Choice is driving women broadly to the polls.”
“There’s this misperception that Trump will be advocating for overtime. But when we talk to them” or play a video clip of Trump saying “I hate paying overtime,” voters’ eyes open up, Shuler said.
“Trump talks a good game, but he never delivers and the results don’t match the rhetoric.”
Shuler, federation Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond, AFSCME President Lee Saunders, and Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Stephanie Bloomingdale fielded the questions after several rank-and-file unionists from swing states described what they’ve been hearing and why they—and tens of thousands of union colleagues—are out on the hustings with just over two weeks to go until Election Day.
And they’re not just talking about contrasting positions at the top of the ballot, but about down-ballot races, too. “Our members are getting positive responses” from voters “who are engaged, enthusiastic and energetic” about participating—and casting ballots—Saunders added.
“I want to elect Jacky Rosen and Steven Horsford,” because of their pro-worker positions, said Harrah’s Las Vegas worker Irma Cueves, a member of Unite HERE Local 226, a 50,000-member local which is a political heavyweight in swing state Nevada. And her union has 1,800 canvassers, who have reached 1.5 million voters so far in swing states Nevada, Arizona, and Pennsylvania alone.
Those states also have key Senate races, Saunders said. The AFSCME chief, who chairs the federation’s political committee, adds members are concentrating on ten U.S. Senate races and 30 U.S. House races. He did not specify which ones, but five key Senate races are in swing states, too: Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Arizona trends Democratic. The rest are closer.
“I’m energized to vote for pro-union leaders,” said Cueves and she wants to enter politics one day herself. Rosen, a Democratic U.S. Senator, faces a tough race against a Trumpite foe. Rep. Horsford, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, is a Local 226 member and former officer.
Not just in swing states
The unionists are not just staying in the swing states, though. Shuler, Saunders, Service Employees President April Verrett, and other unionists stumped for Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, a staunch union supporter but also the sole Democratic statewide officeholder in now leaning-Republican Ohio.
One big selling point for unionists is the contrast between the pro-union policies of the Biden-Harris administration, the prior anti-worker record of Trump’s preceding regime, and the prospects that if he returns, conditions will be even worse, thanks to plans in Project 2025, the real Republican platform.
The document, crafted by ideologues at the far-right Heritage Foundation and led by top Trump political appointees, would abolish government worker unions, substitute comp time for overtime, weaken worker rights and safety and health protections, and enact an enormous wish list of the corporate class.
Bloomingdale said that when canvassers bring it up on the campaign trail “people are really concerned” They realize what it means “not to have a seat at the table.
“Our eyes are now opened to what a second Trump presidency would look like,” said Bloomingdale. Her swing state had its own mini-Trump, in former Republican Gov. Scott Walker, whose infamous Act 10 more than a decade ago slammed public worker unions hard.
Trump’s platform wants to “eliminate them,” Saunders said. Public workers, concentrated in AFSCME, the Service Employees, both teachers unions, three postal unions, and the Fire Fighters, make up just under one of every two union members nationwide.
“We have a record of what Trump did for four years and it was bad,” Bloomingdale added. Saunders said union members and families, previously unconcerned or indifferent, switch when they learn the Republicans and Trump want to abolish their contracts and rights to collectively bargain.
“Our responsibility is not to tell them how to vote, but show them what would be helpful to them and what would be harmful,” Saunders explained.
All the canvassing, polling, and discussion could go for naught, though, if voters, especially voters of color, women, workers, and students, are intimidated from voting or repressed by threats and worse. That’s already happening in deep-red Texas. The AFL-CIO has plans to combat that, too.
“We are preparing for a lot of different scenarios,” Shuler said. “We have a robust network” of worker-to-worker contacts, “and our folks have become experts in teaching people how to vote, telling them what they need, where polling places are and how to cast your ballot” so it doesn’t get thrown out.
The federation will also use the infrastructure it’s been building for years on the ground for organizing to, in this case, respond to intimidation and abuses “as these issues arise,” she said. Added Redmond: “We’re not naive to voter suppression. Where there are changes in voting laws that can harm workers of color and women, the AFL-CIO has been on the ground working with our community allies on what’s needed” to combat them.
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