APWU of Iowa   

TALKING POINTS

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS CAMPAIGN

WHAT IS WORKING AMERICA?

Working America, the community affiliate of the AFL-CIO, is a powerful voice on issues and policies for working people whom DO NOT have the benefit of a union on the job.

Working America combines the power of 1.7 million members with the 13 million union women and men in this country around common goals and challenges.

We fight in communities, states and nationally for what really matters - - -

Good Jobs with a Living Wage

Strong Communities

Quality Education for our children

Affordable Health Care and Prescription Drugs

Retirement Security, including protecting Social Security and Real Homeland Security by helping states staff and equip police, fire and emergency medical departments and more

The AFL-CIO Executive Council created Working America in August 2003. Since then we have recruited over 1.7 million members in communities across the country and expect to reach two million by Labor Day of 2008.

Presently, we are running door-to-door canvasses in Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo, Youngstown and Cincinnati, Ohio; Portland, Oregon; Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Allentown, PA; Twin Cities, MN; Ann Arbor, MI; Louisville, KY; Kansas City, MO; Northern VA and Albuquerque, NM.

In addition to contact at the door, we communicate weekly with many of our members by e-mail. Our e-mail campaigns give our members useful information, an opportunity to get active by sending faxes and e-mails to political and corporate leaders, and a way to give Working America their views on priorities and tactics. We expect to recruit hundreds of thousands of new members by e-mail.

POLITICS

One way we hold politicians accountable is to inform our members about issues and candidates in elections and encourage our members to vote. We have found that the information that union members receive about issues and candidates in elections is critical in informing their votes. Union members are far more likely to support candidates who support a working families agenda than are their neighbors who are not union members. The biggest reason is that the union gives them information they are not getting elsewhere. Working America members will also benefit from access to this information.

Working America is also active in elections. In 2006 we focused on providing important information on working family issues to our members, identifying their key concerns and running a sophisticated GOTV effort. As a result, Working America members voted 74% for Labor endorsed candidates.

ORGANIZING

Several unions are exploring how to use Working America as a way to reach out to communities and workers targeted for organizing as a long - range strategy. We are also testing ways to get industry and occupation information about our members.

MEMBER ACTIVISM

Many Working America members want to be active on the working family issues they care about. Our local organizers will identify activists and provide opportunities to take meaningful action. Side by side with the State federations, CLC’s, local union members and other allies, we will operate as a community organization - - in rallies, lobbying, news conferences, phone banks and letter writing campaigns and more.

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS: BUILD WORKING AMERICA

The ability to fight on behalf of working people depends on the strength and effectiveness of the union membership. But an all out attack on union organizing by employers over the last half century has denied many workers the basic right to make their own decisions about whether or not to have a union on the job.

Unions have experimented for decades with new ways to organize and build power among working people. Working America has been successful in bringing together the concerns of working people since its inception but we must do more.

We all have family and friends who do not have a union on the job but want to be part of the union movement.

And, we all know that change does not happen in Washington. Change happens with people like you in communities across the country demanding it.

So- - - we are asking you to help build Working America by pledging to sign up only three of your friends or family and return the cards to_________________________ by ___________.

A union member who recruits three people (not in their household) to Working America – a niece, a neighbor, a new friend – triples their voice when it comes to saving Social Security from privatization, fighting to keep jobs in your state and getting the working families’ candidate elected to office.

Thank You

Working American www.workingamerica.org