AFL-CIO reaches out to non-union members for Ohio election effort

The Ohio AFL-CIO in Columbus: Politicker PhotoThe AFL-CIO's election effort in Ohio is deeper than ever, but the federation is working to expand the breadth of its appeal by reaching out to non-union members this year.  

The AFL-CIO and its community affiliate Working America combined have 2.1 million members in Ohio, according to AFL-CIO Ohio state director Ben Waxman. Working America has 165 full-time canvassers knocking on non-union doors throughout the state. The effort to recruit those outside labor's official ranks is made by discussing issues such as health care costs and retirement security first, then linking those issues to political activism and voting.

Waxman said there's synergy between organized labor's message and non-union voters' concerns.

"The number one issue for the general public is the number one issue for organized labor," Waxman said of the economy. "There's one institution in the entire country that as the moral authority and the high ground to talk about those issues in a very broad spectrum and in a very broad form and that's organized labor."

As for union members, Waxman said their votes aren't automatically guaranteed for Democrats.

"One of the untold stories about the labor movement is that we're a mix, we're a family. We have Republicans, independents and Democrats. It's pretty evenly divided amongst those lines," he said.

Still, Waxman said the AFL-CIO hasn't endorsed any Republicans in Ohio this year, and its efforts are aimed at making U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) president, expanding Democratic majorities in Congress, and even putting Democrats in control of the Statehouse.

"We're really committed to taking back the Statehouse in Ohio as a number one priority of our affiliate unions and the AFL-CIO to make sure the gavel is in the hands of a pro-worker party, the Democrats, in November," Waxman said. "We've targeted races throughout the state to pick up so we can change the power in Columbus."

Democrats need a net gain of four seats in the state House to gain control because Republicans currently have a 53-46 majority. The state Senate is far more 21 Republican members to Democrats' 12.

With a Democratic governor and a Democratic legislative chamber, labor's agenda would stand a better chance of becoming reality in Ohio. Furthermore, the legislature and governor will decide how to redraw the state's Congressional districts in 2010.

The federation's goal is to have 10,000 volunteers and 3,000 get-out-the-vote workers mobilizing voters in all of Ohio's 88 counties beginning in September.

Like Ohio's Democrats, the AFL-CIO knows that focusing turnout efforts on urban areas isn't enough to win the state for Obama. In 2004 Democrats and liberal 527 groups hit their vote totals with this strategy, yet failed to beat the GOP which pressed rural and suburban areas for votes.

Waxman said there are "significant numbers" of union members in the 25 counties that define southwest Ohio and the 25 that define northwest Ohio, not just Hamilton and Cuyahoga counties, respectively.

Furthermore, Waxman said factories in rural areas give the AFL-CIO a foothold in those sparser, sometimes ignored vicinities for Democrats.

Waxman said the AFL-CIO's program in Ohio sets expectations for other states. 

"Ohio really is the bar. What we do in Ohio we do in other states. Ohio usually takes the lead and moves those things in an aggressive way to the worksite," Waxman said, adding that there is no "one-size-fits-all" approach. 

Still, the AFL-CIO launched its 2008 election program in Ohio first, and for good reason.

"Very early on in early 2006, the national AFL made it enormously clear with affiliates in the national AFL that Ohio was the place where we were going to draw the line in the sand and say we have the membership, we have the density, we can make a difference. Obviously if we win Ohio in 2008 we can certainly help change the direction of the country...." he said.

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