Remarks by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney

For
Immediate Release
Contact: Steve Smith (202)
637-5018

Remarks by AFL-CIO President
John Sweeney
AFL-CIO Post-election Press
Briefing
November 5, 2008

We at the
AFL-CIO are delighted that we will have a new
neighbor across
the park.
Today is one of
the brightest days in my lifetime of fighting
for
working men and women.  And when I think
of all the people I met who
were working
their hearts out for change – and I’m talking
about
state after state after state – I can
safely say that today is one of
the
brightest days for working people across our
nation.  

Led by a candidate with an
uncommon ability to inspire hope,
we
reclaimed our country from those who are
serving corporate interests and
the
privileged at the expense of everyone else.  We
have taken the first
crucial steps to build
a better future for our children
and
grandchildren.  And what we’ve seen –
the stunning voter
participation and the
common call for change – is an indication of
the
history we can continue to make
together.  

With the election of these
two remarkable leaders, Barack Obama and
Joe
Biden, together with strong new
majorities in the U.S. Senate and House
of
Representatives, voters have delivered a
resounding mandate for
broad-based economic
change.

America’s working families and
our unions were a steady force
powering the
engine of change throughout this campaign,
knocking on door
after door, talking to
person after person.  This year we expanded
our
battlefield, reaching out to more than
13 million union voters in 24
states – 13
Senate races, 60 House contests and hundreds of
state
legislative elections, as well as the
presidential election.  We put
together an
unprecedented mobilization and information
drive.  I went
door to door, handed out
leaflets and made phone calls with teachers
and
engineers, painters and nurses,
steelworkers and construction workers. 
It
was like nothing I’d ever seen before.  I met
activists from every
union in our federation
– people like Rachelle Pablo and Shane
Hanley,
who are here with us today. 


In the last four days, 250,000 AFL-CIO
union volunteers nationwide
visited more
than 3.9 million union households, made 5.5
million calls
and distributed more than 2
million leaflets at worksites.  

The
result is that union household members turned
out in huge numbers
and voted overwhelmingly
for Barack Obama and Joe Biden because we
trust
their commitment to strengthening the
economy and turning around America
for
working families.    

In the defining
industrial states like Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Wisconsin,
Michigan and Minnesota, union
voters were the firewall that stopped
John
McCain, voting for Obama by far greater
margins than their working
class
counterparts who aren’t in unions.  In
new battleground states like
Colorado,
Virginia, North Carolina and Florida, union
members mounted a
bigger effort than ever
before, voting by a similarly large margins
for
Obama, and joined young people and other
new voters to build a new
majority for
economic fairness.  

And we expanded our
constituency with Working America, our
community
affiliate which has been called
“Labor’s Secret Weapon,” adding an
amazing
2.5 million new members who got the same
information campaign
and voted decisively
for change.

Our political director Karen
Ackerman will show you the power of
that
vote in one state – Ohio – in a few
minutes.  

We have elected a Congress
that is decidedly stronger on working
family
issues.  You have a preliminary
analysis:  In state after state, we
defeated
candidates with lousy voting records on
workers’ issues and
replaced them with
candidates who will be champions for working
people. 


But the election is just
Step One in delivering the change we need.

Working men and women are poised to keep
the energy pumping to help the
Obama
administration lead the change we need.  There
will be no gap or
letdown.  The AFL-CIO will
keep much of our 20
08 mobilization
structure
in place for an urgent lift-off as
we go into this crucial period.  

We are
determined to enact a new economic agenda that
will lift
America’s working families and
restore confidence in the future for
our
children.  We need to re-think the rules and
strategies of our
economy.  We need changes
attuned to today’s world that are as
bold
and as visionary as the economic
changes FDR made so many decades ago. 



In the short term, working people
need an economic recovery package
that will
jump-start the economy and put America back to
work. We need
extended unemployment benefits
for the millions who still cannot find
work,
an expansion of food stamps, support for
struggling state and
local governments so
they can maintain vital services and an
immediate
investment to create jobs by
rebuilding our crumbling roads and
schools
and bridges.

In the longer
term, we need to invest in a new economy of
good, green
jobs -- not financial bubbles. 
We need fundamental change to reverse
the
decline of the middle class and we must put
common sense rules on
Wall Street that
protect working people’s hard earned money - -
their
pensions, savings and homes.  
No
issue impacts working families more than health
care. Costs are
strangling families.  And
nearly 50 million have no health insurance
at
all, while millions more lack adequate
coverage.  Barack Obama has a
plan to
address our nation’s health care crisis and we
are ready to
work with him. 

And we
must counterbalance corporate power.  The gap
between the
wealthy and everyone else has
grown from a gulf to a chasm under
President
Bush.  We cannot rebuild the middle class and
ensure that
economic growth is shared unless
we give working people back the freedom
to
improve their lives through unions and bargain
for better wages and
benefits.  Workers in
unions, after all, make 30 percent more than
those
without a union, and are much more
likely to have benefits.  

And so our
top priority is passage of the Employee Free
Choice Act,
legislation that will restore
workers’ freedom to bargain for a
better
life.  In an economy that gives
corporations far too much power, a
union
card remains the single best ticket
into the middle class. 

Together, we
have helped lay the groundwork to turn around
America –
to honor every child’s future,
give opportunity where none has
been,
restore our nation’s fundamental
values of equality and fairness and
restore
respect for America around the world.  


This is a proud day for America’s
working men and women and a
historic new
beginning for our
nation.