– I leader della federazione sindacale americana AFL-CIO per Obama, stanziano otre $50mn. e 250mila volontari pro Obama (durante le primarie non si erano espressi perché divisi tra la Clinton e Obama).
– AFL-CIO raggruppa 56 sindacati, e 10 milioni di membri; il 98% dell’ AFL-CIO lo ha sostenuto nell’elezione a senatore.
– La campagna dell’ AFL-CIO intende raggiungere 13 milioni di elettori, iscritti e famiglie, e pensionati, in 23 Stati importanti, concentrandosi su 5 indecisi: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin e Minnesota; temi principali: sanità, pensioni, lavoro, eguaglianza economica, politica sindacale, libertà di creare sindacati.
Obama ha ricevuto l’appoggio di sindacati singoli, tra cui l’International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (elettrici), International Longshoremen’s Association, e California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (infermieri California) + quello della federazione sindacale rivale, Change to Win, e della maggior parte dei suoi sindacati (Service Employees International Union, Unite Here e the International Brotherhood of Teamsters)
June 26, 2008, 2:18 pm
A.F.L.-C.I.O. Endorses Obama
By Steven Greenhouse
– The A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s leaders voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to endorse Barack Obama for president, saying the federation would spend more than $50 million and deploy more than 250,000 volunteers in this fall’s campaign.
John J. Sweeney, the federation’s president, said, “Barack Obama’s record demonstrates he is a champion for working families and his proposals will improve life for generations of working people and our children.
– The federation, a grouping of 56 unions with 10 million members, had stayed on the sidelines during the primary season because union[e] leaders were so divided between Senator Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
– For Mr. Obama, labor’s vocal and enthusiastic backing is important because some Democrats fear that his support is weak among many working-class voters.
In its statements on Wednesday, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. repeatedly made the point that Mr. Obama is a good friend of America’s workers and is familiar with their problems.
– “He was raised by a working mother and grandparents, worked as a community organizer in a Chicago neighborhood devastated by the closing of steel mills, fought for working families in the Illinois State Senate and earned a 98 percent A.F.L.-C.I.O. voting record as a U.S. senator,” Mr. Sweeney said in a statement. “Barack Obama is not someone who just talks the talk–he walks the walk with working families.”
– The A.F.L.-C.I.O. said its campaign efforts would reach more than 13 million voters – union[e] members, their family members and union[e] retirees – in 23 priority states, adding that it planned to be involved in more than 525 federal and state races nationwide.
– The labor federation said its campaign efforts would focus on five swing states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. For union[e] members, the federation aid, the top issues will be health care, retirement security, good jobs, economic equality, trade policy and the freedom to form unions.
– In March, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. began a nationwide “McCain Revealed” campaign that has sought to spread information about what it says is Senator John McCain’s anti-worker record. As part of that campaign, labor volunteers have knocked on 60,000 doors and delivered 1.5 million worksite flyers
“It’s certainly more than a stamp of approval,” Mr. Sweeney said in a telephone interview. “It really moves into motion a massive, united political effort among working -class voters, and it pretty well unites the labor movement behind one who we think is a very strong candidate.”
Asked how Mr. Obama might win over more working-class voters, Mr. Sweeney said, “I think there has to be a strong emphasis on the economy. I think he should continue talking like he’s talked during the primary and focus on the issues that are important to working people and the need to achieve good, middle-class jobs and an economy that works for everybody.”
– Mr. Sweeney also praised Mr. Obama’s position on trade, even though some labor leaders had said they had preferred Mrs. Clinton’s stance.
“I think he’s on the right track on trade,” Mr. Sweeney said. “He has seemed to satisfy our big industrial unions on trade, which is a big step because those are the folks who have bee most affected by the bad trade policies of this administration.”
Mr. Obama received the endorsement on Thursday of several individual unions, including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, International Longshoremen’s Association, and California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee.
Mr. Obama had already received the endorsement of the rival labor federation, Change to Win, as well as the endorsement of most its member unions, including the Service Employees International Union, Unite Here and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.