Union leaders hit the road to stump for Kerry
Leaders of federal labor unions are making it clear where they stand in Tuesday’s election.
In the past two weeks, American Federation of Government Employees President John Gage has crisscrossed the country, touching down in Oregon, Washington state and New Mexico last week, and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin the week before.
On Nov. 2, as voters go to the polls to elect either George W. Bush or John Kerry, Gage will be knocking on doors in Pennsylvania, hoping to convince a few more voters to cast ballots for Kerry, whom the union endorsed in June.
"I'm a nervous wreck," Gage admitted.
Gage accused the Bush administration of attacking unions and federal employee rights at the Defense and Homeland Security departments, which are developing systems that will award pay raises based only on performance, eliminating the annual across-the-board increase to which federal employees have grown accustomed. Gage doesn't believe the systems will be fair or adequately funded.
Kerry, by contrast, has given the union "a very concise guarantee," Gage said: "He will restore to us every right that's been taken away."
Gage has plenty of company among federal employee union leaders. All major unions have endorsed Kerry and, over the past few weeks, they said they have gone to unprecedented lengths to try to help the Democratic senator get elected.
Most of their efforts have come in a handful of battleground states currently wavering in the polls between the two candidates. Just as in 2000, these states are expected to be close, and to ultimately decide the election.
The unions have eschewed expensive television advertising and used their limited resources to support get-out-the-vote efforts. AFGE has deployed 125 activists-including staffers, rank-and-file members and local union leaders-to guide campaigns in battleground states. Some are also working on hard-fought congressional and senatorial campaigns.
The National Treasury Employees Union, meanwhile, focused efforts in nine key states-Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia-to work phone banks, hand out Kerry literature and knock on doors.
NTEU President Colleen Kelley said the union stressed issues that are hitting the pocketbooks of union members, such as contracting out federal jobs and health insurance costs, to explain its endorsement of Kerry.
George Gould, political director for the National Association of Letter Carriers, said President Bush stood in the way of long-sought legislation that would allow the U.S. Postal Service to raise prices more easily and compete on an even footing with private sector delivery companies.
Gould expects voter turnout will be as much as 15 percent higher than it was in 2000 and that new voters could play a decisive role. As a result, the letter carriers have put extra effort into identifying new voters, registering them and contacting them repeatedly to urge them to go to the polls.
More than 100 Letter Carriers' activists have taken time off from work to help identify Kerry supporters and convince them to vote. The union also employs seven staffers that it has deployed to presidential battleground states and those with close Senate or House campaigns.
AFGE has made an effort to convince Republican and undecided members to support Kerry. Gage has reached out especially to prison guards and Defense Department employees, many of whom have preferred Republican candidates in the past.