March 10, 2004
Unions for Kerry
Labor leaders voted Wednesday to spend $44 million to mobilize union household voters in November against President Bush, a record sum in an election they say is do-or-die for the labor movement.The AFL-CIO's get-out-the-vote efforts on behalf of Democrat John Kerry are concentrated in a few battleground states that labor leaders believe will determine the next occupant of the White House. Florida, Ohio and Missouri top the list.
"People are fed up with this administration's inability to create good jobs and get our country back on track," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. "They are demanding a change and we plan to give it to them."
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...... Research has shown labor leaders that continuous communication with those union swing voters can move them 10 to 15 percentage points in polls on attitudes about candidates and issues, said Karen Ackerman, the AFL-CIO's political director.For example, when Saddam Hussein was captured in November, it boosted Bush's poll ratings. But the AFL-CIO found that swing voters who had received mailings, fliers and phone calls from their unions did not give Bush more favorable marks.
Kerry won the labor federation's endorsement last month, and is counting on labor's organizational strength and money to boost his campaign.
"George Bush is running on the same old Republican tactics of fear - and they're already getting tired," Kerry said in a satellite feed to the union conference Wednesday.
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Industrial Workers of the World
Posted by Norwood at March 10, 2004 10:29 PM