AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: “The Road to the White House Goes Through Our Union Halls”
(Washington, D.C.)—In a call with reporters this morning, national and battleground state workers and labor leaders discussed union voters’ support for the Harris-Walz ticket and previewed plans to mobilize during the final weeks of the campaign, including a massive ground game that will contact 5 million union voters in battleground states by Election Day.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler also shared this digital ad highlighting the salient issue of overtime pay, one of several the AFL-CIO is running to millions of voters in battleground states on digital and streaming platforms. Like the other ads in the seven-figure buy, the video features union members speaking directly to fellow union members, replicating the unique conversations happening at worksites, doors, and on phones as part of the labor movement’s 2024 political program.
Below are excerpts from speakers’ remarks:
“The road to the White House goes through our union halls,” said Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO. “Elon Musk can spend all the money he wants to try to build Donald Trump a ground game—but he doesn’t know how to do what we do. We have the infrastructure, the right message and, most importantly, the trust of our members. We’ve contacted 1.6 million voters in-person, having actual conversations that move the needle, and between now and Election Day, the AFL-CIO and our affiliated unions will reach out to 5 million more voters in these battleground states. Across the Blue Wall states—where we make up 20% of the electorate—and all over the country, we’re going to make the difference between now and Election Day.”
“I can tell you that this is as strong a political program as we’ve ever run. The Solidarity Program has engaged thousands upon thousands of union members around the country. Every day, we are knocking on doors, talking to union households and mobilizing them to vote for endorsed candidates. AFSCME is all in,” said AFSCME President Lee Saunders.
“We’re not dropping in just during election season,” said Fred Redmond, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO. “The labor movement has been intentional in building our infrastructure and fostering worker solidarity. We’re a trusted voice, and now we’re laying out the facts, showing exactly what electing pro-worker and pro-union candidates will mean to workers’ jobs and their ability and right to bargain strong contracts. Reaching people of color and boosting turnout with this demographic is critical to our success. And this focus is paying big dividends. Our internal tracking shows that union voters may well be the difference for Harris and Walz in the Southern battleground states.”
“We are hard at work in Wisconsin—and our program is working,” said Wisconsin State AFL-CIO President Stephanie Bloomingdale. “We have people knocking doors, talking to members in the workplace, making phone calls, doing handwritten postcards and more. This is so important to cut through the noise and focus on what matters to working people. Our volunteers and members understand how close it will be in Wisconsin, and that is a motivating factor. We are enthusiastic about Kamala Harris and what her future administration is going to do for working people. On the flip side, our eyes are now open to what a Trump presidency would look like, and it is horrible for workers, our contracts, our unions, and our families.”
“We’re getting down to the door-to-door conversations with our members as I speak,” said Rich Howell, vice president of Pennsylvania State Council of Machinists and former president of IAM Local 1776 in Philadelphia. “We’ve been talking about why you want to be at the table, not on the menu. We went through a pandemic, where—if it wasn’t for us being at the table and helping to negotiate a paycheck protection plan—a lot of our members would have suffered more. Since September, we’ve been knocking on doors five to six days a week.”
“UNITE HERE runs the largest labor-led, independent canvassing program in the country, with 1,800 canvassers aiming to knock over 3.5 million doors across key battleground states,” said UNITE HERE Culinary Union 226 member Irma Cuevas. “I’m talking to union members at their homes, encouraging them to vote for pro-union leaders. That’s why I organize every day with my union to elect Kamala Harris for president.”
A full recording of the call can be accessed here (password to access: &1$!Q?3X).
Contact: Mia Jacobs, 202-637-5018