Working Families eActivist

Sept. 19, 2008

In just 55 days 100-plus million Americans will go to the polls and select our next president. The stakes for working families across America couldn’t be higher.  The differences between the pro-worker policies of Barack Obama and the pro-corporate CEO policies of John McCain are overwhelming.

To protect and grow America’s middle class, the labor movement is coordinating our largest electoral program ever. We’re 100 percent committed to electing Barack Obama and Joe Biden and at least 60 senators who share our pro-worker legislative priorities.

With so much at stake, we’re going to need everyone to pitch in. Over the next 55 days, we’re going to ask you to participate in labor walks and phone banks, write letters to the editor, call talk radio shows and of course—vote. First, we wanted to lay out how important this election is, what our actual plan is and why your help is so critical to our success in the following strategy memo.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve presented this information to labor leaders across the country, and today we’re sharing it with our most important constituency—you. Thanks for everything you have done and will continue to do to make America a better country for all of America’s workers.

In Solidarity,

Karen Ackerman
AFL-CIO Political Director

Aug. 29, 2008

In an attempt to take attention away from Barack Obama's inspiring acceptance speech in Denver last night, John McCain announced his running mate today in Dayton, Ohio. He's hoping to receive great fanfare and win over southern Ohioans.

Ohio's workers have a message for John McCain: We can't afford four more years of Bush administration-style, anti-worker policies.

To welcome him to Ohio, we put together a 30-second video that gives workers in Dayton and all across Ohio a chance to talk about McCain in their own words. We hope you enjoy the video. Pass it along to your friends.

McCain's announcement in Ohio today is an attempt to make us forget last night's inspirational speech by Barack Obama. Let's be clear. It won't fade from our memory that easily, but we know that inspirational speeches aren't enough. Electing Obama and turning this country around is going to take hard work--and maybe even some perspiration.

We're ready to work, and hopefully you're ready to work with us. The stakes in this election couldn't be higher. In the next 65 days, we'll be talking to union members by mail, phone, and yes, door to door, member to member. We all know John McCain's anti-worker policies will punish working families, and we simply can't afford another four years of Bush-McCain business as usual in Washington, D.C.

Check out the video and pass it along to your friends.

Stagnant wages.
Rising food and fuel costs.
Jobs being shipped overseas.
Out-of-control health are costs.
Disappearing middle class.

These are just some of the consequences of the Bush administration's policies. John McCain, whose votes have consistently supported Bush, promises four more years of the same. It is up to us to make sure that every union member understands what's at stake in this election.

Check out the video and pass it along to your friends.

The choice in this election couldn't be more clear, and we need your help to get the message out. We have a unique and wonderful opportunity to elect a truly pro-worker president and vice president in Barack Obama and Joe Biden. We must seize the moment.

In Solidarity,

Working Families

P.S. Need some more inspiration? Get this: John McCain has more than 130 lobbyists working on his campaign or raising money for it. If he’s elected, guess who he is going to owe? Check out our video today.

Paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Political Contributions Committee, www.aflcio.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

What an overwhelming response! In the past two weeks alone, 160,000 workers have joined us in support of the Employee Free Choice Act. We’re quickly closing in on our intermediate target of 500,000 supporters by Labor Day. And with your help, we can smash through that goal as we march toward the big one: 1 million mobilized members.

Even if you are lucky enough to already be a part of a union with a good contract, we need you to fight for all workers, because the more people in unions, the better it gets for all of us. A strong union workforce means higher wages, better benefits and improved living standards for everyone.

Join 460,000-plus workers and call on Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

All across America, hardworking families are feeling the squeeze from economic policies that bail out billionaires but abandon workers. It’s long past time to level the playing field. Passing the Employee Free Choice Act will make it easier for workers to form a union, negotiate a contract, ensure their jobs are well-paid and protected and provide a chance for a better life.

All workers—not just CEOs and their high-priced consultants—deserve fair wages, decent benefits and safe working conditions—but without union representation in the workplace, many will never get them. That is why we need the Employee Free Choice Act.

Sign on today and help us get to 500,000 signatures by Labor Day.

Unions have been at the forefront of the fight for workers rights in America for over a century. Benefits like overtime pay, maternity leave and employer-sponsored health plans have become standard—not because corporations somehow became nicer, but because unions fought for all of us. It’s time for us to join together to demand a fair deal for workers again.

Sign the petition now and help us get 1 million signatures.

Thanks so much for your support.

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

July 24, 2008

Your opponent is winning. Do you say, "Good game!"

Heck, no! Play by health insurance company rules and knock over the chessboard—or blow an air horn in his ear as he lines up his putt.

"You can play by the rules. Or you can follow insurance company rules where you can do whatever the hell you want." That's the message of a new video from Health Care for America NOW, a strong new coalition that includes the AFL-CIO.

"Insurance companies rewrite the rules as they go along to win every time. Why shouldn't you?"

Really, none of us should have to play by insurance company rules in a system that costs too much, covers too little and excludes too many.

We have a choice. Please sign the petition now to help win secure, high-quality health care for all.

While working families are struggling to make ends meet, insurance companies rake in huge profits, enjoying lax regulations that allow them to make money by denying coverage and care. Today, one in four people don't get the care they need, even though they pay for health insurance. Many of us are one medical emergency away from bankruptcy. On top of that, 47 million people have no health coverage at all.

Change the rules. Sign the petition now to win health care we all can count on.

With allies like Health Care for America NOW, members of the AFL-CIO are working to win health care reform that controls costs, provides high-quality care for all, preserves the right to choose our own doctors and let's us keep the health coverage we have if we like it—or to change if it's not meeting our needs.

No more losing coverage because you change jobs, or being denied coverage because of an illness. No more having to choose between feeding the kids and keeping them healthy. No more worrying that one injury could cost you your home.

Please help us change the rules so working families, not insurance companies, are in charge of our health care.

Sign the petition now to help us win high-quality care we can count on.

By signing the petition, you will make your voice heard. Together, millions of our voices are stronger than the special interest money trying to block the health care reform we need.
In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

P.S. Share the "Insurance Company Rules" video with others you know and urge them to sign the petition. Please forward this e-mail. Thanks.

July 21

Help us reach the Labor Day goal of 500,000 signatures supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. The key to restoring America's middle class is restoring our freedom to form unions and bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions. Do your part before Labor Day. Please sign the petition now. And urge people you know to sign it, too. Help spread the word about our campaign

Last month, we announced the campaign to collect 1 million signatures supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. People probably thought we were crazy—1 million signatures!

But thanks to your great work, we're almost one-third of the way there already. We have 300,000 signatures urging the new Congress and president to enact the Employee Free Choice Act when they get to Washington next year.

Can you help us hit the 500,000 mark by Labor Day?

Please sign the petition now.

And urge your friends to sign it, too.

Can you imagine a CEO agreeing to work without a contract that guarantees pay and benefits? It would never happen. But when companies prevent workers from forming unions, that’s exactly what they’re making employees do: work without any assurance of pay and benefits.

If we collect enough signatures and elect friends of working families, next year we can enact the Employee Free Choice Act, which would:

• Establish stronger penalties for violations of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations. 
• Guarantee that workers who choose union representation will have a contract.
• Remove barriers that deny workers the opportunity to form unions and bargain for better wages, health care and pensions.

Please help us collect 500,000 signatures supporting the Employee Free Choice Act by Labor day. Sign the petition now.

And urge others to sign it as well.

Thanks so much for being a part of this effort.

In solidarity,


Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

P.S. Be sure to upload a picture to accompany your signature. We’ll forward it to members of Congress. If they want to oppose your interests, they’ll have to look you in the face while doing it.

July 11

Phil Gramm is the national co-chair of John McCain’s presidential campaign. 

When he called us a nation of “whiners” and said we’re in a “mental recession,” rather than a real recession, McCain tried to head off a media storm by distancing himself from Gramm. 

But the truth is, the former U.S. senator from Texas has been McCain’s chief economic adviser for many years and is on McCain’s short list for Treasury secretary.

Here’s part of what Gramm told the Washington Times this week:

"You’ve heard of mental depressions; this is a mental recession....We have sort of become a nation of whiners....You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline....We’ve  never been more dominant; we’ve never had more natural advantages than we have today.... We have benefited greatly" from the globalization of the economy in the last 30 years. 

In February,  McCain told the Houston Chronicle: “He’s probably the smartest—not just economist, but politician—there is.”

In January, McCain said in an interview with the New York Post, "I would rely on the circle I have developed over many years of people like Jack Kemp, Phil Gramm, Warren Rudman, Pete Peterson and the Concorde Group" (a right-wing think tank).

As soon as Gramm's comments hit the airwaves, blog world and headlines, McCain began backing away from Gramm faster than a falling Dow Jones stock. He claimed Gramm doesn't speak for him and said he didn't agree with the comments. But in an interview with Fox News in April, the candidate himself said he thinks the recession is all in our minds, "A lot of our problems today, as you know are psychological—the confidence, the trust, the uncertainty about our economic future, the ability to keep our home."     

Along with sharing a penchant for playing shrink to voters worried about the economy, the McCain-Gramm pair shares pretty much the same economic philosophy and love of deregulation, especially in the banking and energy industries. In April, the Washington Post credited Gramm with creating the legislative highway for the subprime lending crisis that is causing foreclosures on the home mortgages of more than 3 million working families:

“Gramm’s aggressive efforts when he was chairman of the Senate Banking Committee to deregulate the banking and financial services industry...culiminated in the passage in 1999 of a sweeping financial services law that tore down the Depression-era Glass-Steagall wall separating regulated commercial banks from largely unregulated investment banks....To many liberal economists, Gramm’s efforts set the stage for the current crisis.” 

If, heaven forbid, McCain takes the White House, you can bet, because he's said so many times, that the McCain administration's economic policies will be straight of the Gramm playbook. Pretty scary, eh?

Help spread the word by forwarding this message to your family and co-workers. We've got to stop that from happening.

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

P.S. How can you help? By taking part in our Million-Member Mobilization for the Employee Free Choice Act to build power for workers. We can't reach our goal of 1 million signatures without you. Sign the petition now and tell Congress it's time for a change!

http://www.freechoiceact.org/page/s/aflcio?source=aflciomg

Paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Political Contributions Committee, www.aflcio.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

July 9

Thanks to a declining housing market, a health care system in crisis and the failure of employers to provide pensions, today’s workers will rely more than ever on Social Security and Medicare when they retire.

Unfortunately, Sen. John McCain does not understand how crucial these programs are for working families. In the past, he has suggested privatizing Social Security, and only yesterday he claimed Social Security is an “absolute disgrace.” 

Click to view video.
 

We thought you’d want to be the first to know. McCain has said he “never really understood economics,” and as he’s rolled out do-nothing economic proposals this week, he’s proven that.

Social Security has worked for decades, allowing workers who helped build the economy to retire without fear of poverty. McCain’s Social Security schemes would undermine the program and break the promise that has helped protect generations of retirees.

McCain doesn’t need to worry—he’s a multi-millionaire with at least seven homes and a guaranteed, taxpayer-funded pension, thanks to his decades in Washington. But what about the rest of us?

We can’t afford four more years of the same policies as the Bush administration. That’s why the work you as an activist do is so important.  Help us get out the word on McCain’s record on the economy and Social Security. 

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

P.S. How can you help? By taking part in our Million-Member Mobilization for the Employee Free Choice Act to build power for workers. We can't reach our goal of 1 million signatures without you. Sign the petition now and tell Congress it's time for a change!

http://www.freechoiceact.org/page/s/aflcio?source=aflciomc

Dear Concerned Union Member,

Across the country, working families have been getting the word out about John McCain’s sorry record on working family issues like the economy, jobs, trade, health care, retirement security and the freedom to bargain.

Many people are stunned to hear the facts about McCain's economic record--making it all the more important that we continue to expose McCain's plans to continue the failed economic agenda of George Bush.

But we need your help to keep up the momentum.

Click here to join the McCain Revealed Rapid Response Team.

As a team member, here's how you can help:

• Attend Rapid Response events in your area;
• Write a letter to the editor of your local paper;
• Share information with your friends and family about McCain’s poor record on working families;
• Post worksite fliers about the 2008 election.

Wherever John McCain has gone these past few weeks, working men and women like you have been there to confront him on economic issues--they’ve demanded that he speak to working families’ concerns.

In Denver, dozens of working men and women chanted “Stop Foreclosures” as McCain entered a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser at the Petroleum Club.

Denver resident Linda Donna had this to say:

The market is upside down, and so many of us have had our property value plummet below the purchase value of the home. McCain has no plan to deal with this crisis.

In California, working men and women turned out strongly to confront McCain in Pebble Beach and San Francisco, calling him out on his anti-worker record.

The same thing keeps happening as McCain travels across the country--from Pennsylvania to Missouri to New Hampshire.

And with your help, we’ll continue to reveal McCain’s real record on working families, wherever he goes.

Please sign up today to join the McCain Revealed Rapid Response Team.

And check out “McCain Revealed: The Briefing Book” to learn more about McCain’s anti-worker record.

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

P.S.  Please forward this message to your friends and invite them to join the McCain Revealed Rapid Response Team. The bigger the team, the better the response.

Paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Political Contributions Committee, www.aflcio.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

June 17, 2008

A robust middle class.  Economic growth and shared prosperity.  The American Dream.  None are possible unless workers have the free choice to bargain for a better life—in their workplaces and in our nation.

That’s why we need the Employee Free Choice Act—critical legislation that would restore workers' freedom to form unions and bargain for better wages, health care, and working conditions—and have a voice in our economy.

We’re teaming up with hundreds of organizations and unions to launch a massive campaign—the Million Member Mobilization.

We're going to show the new President and Congress that there are one million people who want to give hardworking families a chance to get ahead.  Can you be one of the first?

Click here to sign the petition for the Employee Free Choice Act.

Why is this bill so important?  It's plain as day: workers are struggling in this country. 

The playing field is tilted in favor of lavishly-paid CEOs, who get golden parachutes while middle class families get stuck holding the bag.  The Employee Free Choice Act can restore the balance, giving workers freedom to form unions and bargain for better a life – and an opportunity to pursue their dreams. 

Corporate interests are fighting the Employee Free Choice Act with everything they’ve got.  They’re protecting the status quo—a rigged system which allows them to intimidate, harass, and even fire workers who try to form a union.  We're not talking about isolated incidents: 30% of employers illegally fire workers who try to form unions. 

It’s time our economy worked for everyone again.  It’s time for Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. 

Add your name to the petition and add your voice to this growing movement.  Help us meet our goal of one million signatures! You can go to: http://freechoiceact.org/aflcio to sign the petition.

When you sign, be sure to upload your picture, too.  We'll share it with lawmakers so they can see the faces of everyone who cares about this issue.

Together, we can change the law, change the economy, and change our futures for the better.
 
In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

P.S. Help spread the word about the real John McCain. Please encourage others you know to visit our McCain Revealed online briefing book by forwarding this message. Have a website or blog? Add one of our buttons linking to McCain Revealed.

June 3

Straight talker? Maverick?

John McCain has worked hard to create that media image for himself. But where does he really stand on the issues that matter to working families? Now he's trying to show he's "a different kind of Republican"—even though he voted with President Bush 95 percent of the time last year.

Find out about the real John McCain at our updated and expanded McCain Revealed online briefing book. We’ve researched McCain’s record and his plans for the country to find out what a McCain presidency would mean for working families. Our new and expanded online briefing book includes the latest information on McCain’s record and positions on the economy, health care, trade, jobs, retirement security, workers’ rights and the Bush agenda.

Check out:

• What McCain’s health care plan would mean for you.
• How McCain voted on crucial issues like wages, Medicare and the Employee Free Choice Act.
• McCain’s support for privatizing Social Security.
• McCain’s enthusiasm for job-killing trade deals like NAFTA and CAFTA.

McCain Revealed links to full fact sheets detailing his positions and proposals on key issues, along with downloadable fliers, video clips and the latest stories about McCain from the AFL-CIO Now blog.

Visit the new and expanded McCain Revealed online briefing book now.

Thanks for your continuing efforts to improve life for working families.

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

P.S. Help spread the word about the real John McCain. Please encourage others you know to visit our McCain Revealed online briefing book by forwarding this message. Have a website or blog? Add one of our buttons linking to McCain Revealed.

May 20, 2008

Most of you will receive a check in the mail from the IRS, as the government sends out the tax refunds meant to stimulate the economy.  As gas and food prices continue to rise, the extra cash couldn’t arrive at a better time for many working families.

Remember, if you decide to spend some or all of that rebate check, you can always use the money to buy union-made items at The Union Shop Online.  Instead of spending your check on imported goods, you can shop from the comfort of your home--for clothing, books, buttons, bumper stickers and more--at The Union Shop.

Plus, you can shop knowing that everything is union-made-in-the-USA.

Happy shopping!

DearUnion Member,
May 16, 2008

Many working men and women have done their part for our country through their service in the military. 

In fact, veterans of the U.S. military returning to the job market are more likely to become union members than other workers. Six million union members, or 38 percent of all union members, are veterans of military service.   

But many soldiers and sailors returning home to look for jobs today face severe difficulty. Eighteen percent of veterans recently back from tours of duty are unemployed. Of those employed since leaving the military, 25 percent earn less than $21,840 a year, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

We need your help as we fight for the rights of veterans in our ranks and for those re-entering the workforce from active service. 

With so many new challenges facing veterans, we ask for your participation in our Union Veterans 2008 program. 

To join up, please click here to take our Union Veterans 2008 survey:

http://unionveterans2008.questionpro.com/ 

We’d like to hear about you and your service to our country.

Veterans need policies that promote access to good jobs, protection of their re-employment rights and better education and training benefits through an expanded G.I. Bill.  They also need a fully funded Veterans Affairs health care program.

We are calling for working families to join our campaign and speak out to hold government and candidates accountable on the needs of our returning heroes--not only during the 2008 campaign, but beyond. 

Please click here to take our Union Veterans 2008 survey today:

http://unionveterans2008.questionpro.com/

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

P.S. Please pass this survey along to everyone you know who has served, or is currently serving, in our nation’s armed forces.

Dear Concerned Union Member,

“It seems like CEOs hit the lottery even when their companies collapse,” Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said at a recent hearing on CEO pay and the mortgage crisis. 

He was absolutely right.

Just about any way you look at it, runaway pay packages led CEOs to take on excessive risk and are one of the real causes of the mortgage crisis.

Too often, compensation programs encouraged top corporate executives to maximize short-term financial gains at the expense of long-term sustainability. In effect, boards of directors rewarded their CEOs for generating financial results that were often based on taking on irresponsible levels of subprime mortgage risk.

The brand-new AFL-CIO 2008 Executive PayWatch website exposes CEO pay packages, including those of the chief executives whose companies helped create the subprime mortgage meltdown.

Click here to learn more at the 2008 Executive PayWatch site.

And you can do something about this corporate greed:

1) Click here to tell your representative and senators to help homeowners affected by the irresponsible corporate lending practices that led to the mortgage meltdown.

2) Click here to urge your senators to support giving shareholders a say on CEO pay.

While chief executive officers say their pay is linked to company performance, many CEOs received large paychecks and bonuses while their company’s performance suffered.

No CEO epitomizes that better than Countrywide Financial Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Angelo Mozilo.

As the real estate bubble deflated in the second half of 2007, Countrywide suffered $1.6 billion in mortgage-related losses.

But even though CEO Mozilo is on his way out, he’s not leaving Countrywide empty-handed. He’s entitled to an enhanced supplemental executive retirement plan with a lump sum worth $22.4 million, a pension plan with a present value of $1.3 million and $20.6 million in deferred compensation.

And while Countrywide shareholders have seen the value of their investment fall a whopping 85 percent since February 2007, Mozilo also will keep his $414 million in stock options that he exercised between 2004 and 2007.

Read more of our new Executive PayWatch case studies that show how CEO pay packages led to risky business at firms, including Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Bear Sterns and others.

Also at the PayWatch website, you can find out about the recent trends in 2007 CEO pay.

Want to see how your wage compares with the major CEOs and learn how to track down executive pay? Click here to see the CEO Pay Database.
 
Visitors to PayWatch can take action by urging their legislators to help homeowners and to limit the economic fallout from faulty lending practices.

Over the past several years, CEO pay has exploded at many of the companies responsible for creating the subprime mortgage crisis.
 
Too often, their compensation programs encouraged corporate executives to maximize short-term financial gains at the expense of long-term sustainability. In effect, boards of directors rewarded their CEOs for generating financial results that were often based on taking on irresponsible levels of subprime mortgage risk.

Their actions have had devastating effects. Real estate prices are dropping, foreclosures are on the rise and many homeowners find that they owe more on their mortgage than what their home is worth.

Also, please send a message to your senators today and urge them to support giving shareholders a “say on pay.”
 
Frequently, the pay that corporate chief executives receive has little connection with the performance of the companies they lead. Unfortunately, shareholders do not have a meaningful voice in the way boards of directors establish and approve executive pay, and thus cannot ensure a link between CEO pay and corporate performance.

In order for shareholders to have a voice in the process, Congress needs to pass a “say on pay” law requiring publicly traded companies to submit executive pay plans to a nonbinding shareholder vote each year. “Say on pay” legislation would provide a cost-effective and efficient way to curb excessive executive pay and encourage long-term value creation at public companies. 

Click here to take action today.

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

P.S. Please share the 2008 Executive PayWatch site with your friends and family.  They need to know how excessive CEO pay packages played a part in the devastating subprime mortgage crisis.

April 11, 2008

With the U.S. economy in near free fall, President Bush has sent the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to Capitol Hill—Bush wants to force a vote before he leaves office next January.

The all-out, nationwide mobilization to let members of Congress know that working Americans oppose this deal begins today.

As the fight gears up, we need to know whose side your members of Congress are on.

Call your senators and representative today to ask if they will side with workers and oppose the Colombia FTA. The call is toll free:

1-866-338-5720

We need you to report back to us: Click here to let us know how your lawmakers will vote.

The deal is wrong for workers in both countries. 

Bush has made passing this agreement a priority, even though it will do next to nothing for the failing U.S. economy.

The Colombia FTA represents a continuation of the Bush administration’s failed trade policies, an agenda that has contributed to the loss of more than 3 million manufacturing jobs since 2000, skyrocketing trade deficits and shrinking paychecks.

Colombia remains the most dangerous country in the world for union members—39 trade unionists were murdered in 2007 and another 17 to date in 2008. Of the more than 2,500 murders of trade unionists since 1986, only some 70 cases—about 3 percent—have resulted in convictions.

Balanced trade agreements must guarantee the right to organize, lift the lives of workers in both countries and prevent exploitation. But this can’t happen in a country where workers who try to organize are killed.

Colombia’s government has thwarted workers' right to organize and bargain collectively—by weakening labor protections, refusing to register legitimate unions and failing to enforce the law against anti-union discrimination.

Remember to call your representative and senators today. Tell them to oppose the Colombia FTA: 1-866-338-5720.

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

P.S. Please tell your friends to call the U.S. House and Senate today at 1-866-338-5720. Together, we can stop the Colombia FTA.

April 11, 2008

Last summer, retired steelworker Steve Skvara brought 20,000 people to their feet at the AFL-CIO Presidential Forum in Chicago when he told a heart-wrenching story of his family’s health care nightmare.

He asked a very simple question, “What's wrong with America, and what will you do to change it?”

The candidates got their chance to answer—but now it’s your turn.

The AFL-CIO is launching the Turn Around America Online Video Competition to engage and inspire people like you from across the country to tell us how they’d turn our country around.

Click here to submit your short video today.

Most winners will receive cash prizes and selected videos will be featured in television ads.
 
Our panel of celebrity judges will pick several of the winners, while visitors to the website will choose the recipient of the “Our America” award. 

Plus, some of the winning videos will appear in television ads—in part to engage voters and 2008 political candidates in a national dialogue about what is necessary to get America back on track. 

At a time when working people are struggling as never before—home foreclosures, bankruptcies, soaring health care costs, jobs sent overseas—we want to know what you think we should do to turn around America.

Our goal is to start a new kind of national conversation through this video competition. It’s about making your voice heard and earning a platform in our national conversation on the future, the upcoming election and beyond.

Tell us your story.

Participants will be invited to submit online videos in any creative form. Your video must be no longer than 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

Click here for official Turn Around America Online Video Competition rules and guidelines.

Our judging panel includes activists, producers, directors, actors, writers, artists and unionists. Learn more about the judges here.

Submit your Turn Around America video here. 
 
In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

P.S. Do you have creative friends or family members? Do they think America is headed in the wrong direction? Please tell them today to participate in our Turn Around America Online Video Competition.

March 28

In the tomato fields of south Florida, modern-day servitude still thrives.

Farm workers who pick tomatoes for the fast-food industry are among this country’s most exploited workers. They sometimes are held against their will, beaten and forced to work for little or no pay. Thousands more are trying to survive with poverty wages, no overtime pay, no sick leave and no freedom to join unions for a better life.

Click here to sign the petition to eliminate modern-day servitude in America’s produce fields.

The tomato workers are demanding that Burger King and food industry leaders work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to improve the wages and conditions for the workers who pick tomatoes and join an industry-wide effort to eliminate human rights abuses from Florida’s fields.

Last April, the CIW won a groundbreaking agreement with McDonald’s, the world’s largest restaurant chain. The fast-food giant agreed to pay a penny more per pound to workers harvesting tomatoes, which means the workers get 72 cents to 77 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick, up from 40 cents to 45 cents.  

But Burger King, the world’s second-largest hamburger chain, has rejected working with the CIW to improve farm workers’ wages and conditions.

Instead, it has joined with extreme conservatives and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange to fight the agreements. In fact, to discourage the growers from paying a mere penny more per pound, the growers exchange has threatened to impose a $100,000 fine on any grower who participates in the agreements.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who signed the petition, told a Capitol Hill rally:

I come here with a message for every woman and man who picks tomatoes: You are not alone. We know about your courage, we’re proud of you for standing up for what’s right. Your struggle is our struggle. Your dream is our dream. Your goal is our goal. And we’re going to be right beside you until the morning arrives when you win what you deserve, when you have better pay and decent conditions, when you and your hard work are respected and honored, when justice is finally done!

Members of Congress, including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), also have signed the petition.

You can sign the petition by clicking here.

In January, federal officials in south Florida arrested six people, charging them with conspiring to make money off workers from Mexico and Guatemala, forging documents and committing identity theft. The six are connected to a business operation in Immokalee, Fla., allegedly created to hold workers in involuntary servitude and peonage.

The campaign is entering its final month. We need your support to make it a success now more than ever.

Take a moment today to add your name to the growing list of petition signers, and forward the petition on to your family, friends and co-workers so that they may sign it as well.

With each signature, our message to Burger King and other food industry leaders that they must take responsibility for the human rights crisis in America’s fields grows even stronger.

To learn more, please read the Ft. Myers News-Press article, “Group Accused of Keeping, Beating, Stealing from Immokalee Laborers” (1/18/08), or the Miami Herald piece, “How About a Side Order of Human Rights?” (12/16/07). 

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

P.S. The more signatures we get, the stronger the voice we give to the tomato workers suffering in horrifying conditions. Please click here to send this petition to your friends today.

Dear Union Member,

Over a period of seven weeks, more than 26,000 people took the online 2008 Health Care for America Survey sponsored by the AFL-CIO and Working America. Most are insured and employed. Most are college graduates. More than half are union members.

These are the people, it would seem, most likely to have positive experiences with America’s health care system. Instead, their responses tell a sobering story about the breadth of the problems with health care in America. They say our system has fundamental problems that must be fixed.

And they’re ready to vote about it.

Click here to read the full results of the 2008 Health Care for America Survey.

And click here to listen to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney discuss the survey results.

You can learn more about our findings, download the full report in PDF format and read the thousands of heart-wrenching stories about the effects of this broken health care system on the respondents and their families.

One in three survey respondents say they had to skip medical care because of cost, a quarter had serious problems paying for the care they needed and a huge majority--79 percent--say health care is a top voting issue.

Here’s what else the survey found:

• The demand for change in today’s health care system is based primarily on deep concerns about costs.
• The failures of America’s health care system are a significant factor in broader economic problems facing working families today.
• Having insurance coverage is not insulating families from problems, concerns and dissatisfaction with today’s health care system.
• But people who lack insurance—and those who have children younger than 18 who are not covered—report particularly troubling problems getting the care they need because of cost.
• More than half of the survey takers say their health insurance does not cover all the care they need at a price they can afford.
• Medicare is not a shield against unaffordable prescription drug prices.
• Concerns about today’s health care system span all ages, races and education levels, and affect the insured as well as the uninsured.

“These are the people you would expect to have positive experiences with America’s health case system...the lucky ones--except they’re not,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said of the survey results. “They’re hurting, struggling to pay medical bills, skipping doctor visits and prescriptions because of costs. And they are extremely pessimistic about the future of our country.  They think health care is one of today’s most important issues--and they are ready to vote about it.”

Click here to learn more about the 2008 Health Care for America Survey.

The survey gives voice to working families’ concerns about health care in this critical election year, and the results will be shared with candidates for office across the country at every level. The survey exposes a health care system that costs too much, covers too little, leaves too many behind and is getting worse. The results deliver a mandate for health care reform to everyone who wants the support of working families in this year’s elections.

Our job in 2008 is to elect a president, Congress and leaders at every level who will work to Turn Around America. The road to health care reform—and to an economy that works for all—runs through the 2008 elections.

We have to help candidates who support real reform to become active champions for health care. And we have to expose and hold accountable candidates at all levels who oppose real reform and propose false solutions.

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

P.S.  Please send the 2008 Health Care for American Survey results to your friends, family, colleagues, and anyone else who wants to learn more about the survey and how working families can win secure, high-quality health care for all in 2009.

Dear Union Member,

Working families across this country are facing all kinds of hardships: a staggering economy, stagnant wages, a broken health care system, a home foreclosure and housing crisis, a disastrously flawed U.S. trade policy and a hostile climate for workers seeking to form unions.

But someone must have forgotten to tell Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who has clinched the Republican presidential nomination. “I still believe our fundamental underpinnings of our economy are strong,” McCain said recently.

It’s no wonder—McCain has said economic issues are something he’s “never really understood.”

As the Democratic nomation fight continues, it’s time working families understand John McCain’s poor record on working family issues. Here’s a quick look:

• McCain—Wrong on Trade: McCain has cast vote after vote for every free trade agreement under the sun, including the most devastating agreement in our history, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He has gone on to praise NAFTA and its effects and has voted to make it easier for the president to enter into agreements without strong worker protections.
  
  
• McCain—Wrong on Workers: McCain voted to block the Employee Free Choice Act and supported a national “right to work” for less law. He supported President Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans while voting against raising the minimum wage.
  
  
• McCain—Wrong on Jobs: McCain has made it a point to tell audiences that some jobs “aren’t coming back.” What he doesn’t often explain is his role in exporting those jobs in the first place. McCain voted against prohibiting the overseas outsourcing of government contracts and voted to privatize federal jobs. He also voted to contract out federal jobs. And McCain has certainly done little to aid those who have lost their jobs, voting against the extension of federal unemployment insurance benefits.
  
  
• McCain—Wrong on Social Security: McCain voted for Bush’s Social Security privatization plan and says the only solution to fixing Social Security is through private accounts.
  
  
• McCain—Wrong on Health Care: McCain wants to make health care premiums part of taxable income, creating a new tax for working families. His plan would force working families to fend for themselves in the private insurance market and undermine employer-based health care. In addition, McCain has voted to slash funding for Medicare and opposed the reauthorization and new funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
  
  
• McCain—Wrong on George W. Bush: Since President Bush took office, McCain has supported Bush’s positions 89 percent of the time. McCain’s support of Bush’s policies reached as high as 95 percent in 2007.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll share more information with you about Sen. McCain’s record on the issues, including the economy, jobs, health care, trade, workers’ rights and retirement security.

For now, take a look at McCain Revealed: The Briefing Book, and send it to your friends and family.

And remember—sign up to be a part of our rapid response efforts and receive regular updates and alerts about John McCain:

http://www.unionvoice.org/wfean/mccainrevealed.html

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

P.S. Please forward this message to everyone you know so they can see McCain Revealed: The Briefing Book.

Paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Political Contributions Committee, www.aflcio.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

Dear Concerned Citizen,

Last week, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) missed the vote on the Senate’s version of the economic stimulus package. The original bill would have helped the jobless and families who need help paying their heating bills.

The package fell one vote short.  What could have possibly kept McCain away?

“We’ve just been too busy, focused on other stuff,” he said. “We’ve got a couple of meetings scheduled.” (McCain wasn’t too busy, though, to show up to vote for the final package—a bill that did not include unemployment benefit extensions or heating assistance.)
 
But McCain isn’t the only one to blame—a minority of Senate Republicans, including Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Hutchison, successfully blocked the package with a filibuster.

Click here to tell Sens. Cornyn and Hutchison you weren’t too busy to notice this shameful vote.

Senate Republicans need to know we’ll be paying attention the next time unemployment benefit extensions come to a vote.

McCain was “too busy” to lend a hand to the more 1.3 million unemployed men and women who soon will run out of benefits. And a “couple of meetings” kept McCain from assisting low-income families who can’t afford skyrocketing fuel costs.

Meanwhile, the latest job numbered showed the economy shed jobs for the first time in four years, as unemployment claims spiked to the highest level since the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Economists agree that extending unemployment benefits is a proven way to stimulate the economy. Unemployed workers are likely to spend these benefits quickly to make ends meet, which quickly pumps money into the economy.

As Moody's economist Mark Zandi pointed out:

"If someone who is literally living paycheck to paycheck gets an extra dollar, it's very likely that they will spend that dollar immediately on whatever they need--groceries, to pay the telephone bill, to pay the electric bill."

Unfortunately, your senators left the jobless with nothing to fall back on as job creation falters and the economy creaks toward recession.

Click here to tell your senators you weren’t too busy to notice this shameful vote against the most vulnerable:

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/jobless_left_cold_2

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

P.S. Be sure to tell your friends to contact your senators today.

February 29

We asked you to help us reach our goal of 20,000 completed health care surveys-–and we got quite a response.

As of today, more than 23,000 working men and women have made their voices heard on health care.

Our new goal: 25,000 health care voices by the end of the week.

Remember, the more survey responses we have, the stronger the message will be to the leaders and candidates at every level who will see the survey results.  We need to make sure these decision makers understand what working families are experiencing.

Click here to take the 2008 Health Care for America Survey.

And please tell your friends, family members and anyone else you know to take part in the 2008 Health Care for America Survey today.

You also can read the thousands of health care stories working families from across the country have already submitted.

From Sunrise, Fla., came Robert’s tragic story about a brother who died last October:

"He didn't have health care. His job didn't provide health care. He was hurt on the job. His employer didn't care enough to get him medical treatment. His injury progressively got worse. He didn't have the money to get it taken care of. He had to work with his injury. After two years of pain and agony, he passed away. He was already in hell. Now I know he's in heaven. Anything has got to be better than what he was going through. Love you brother. God rest your soul."

And Doreen, a Working America member from Dayton, Ohio, told us her health care story:

"My job was moved to another city. The job that I currently have pays just barely enough to get by. Their insurance is entirely too expensive for me to purchase, and doesn't cover much anyhow. I have serious health risk and issues, and I have no way of getting insurance. I thought if I got a raise I could maybe swing it. But they hiked up the premium, and now there is no way I can afford it. I'm scared to death I will loose everything I have worked for. I am a single mom who is struggling and scared. It shouldn't be this way, not in America."

The 2008 Health Care for America Survey gives you the chance to make your voice heard and ensures that leaders and candidates at every level understand what working families are experiencing.

Click here to take the 2008 Health Care for America Survey.

All individual survey responses are kept completely confidential.

Be sure to share your health care story and send the survey to friends and family.

The compiled survey results will be given to the presidential candidates, every U.S. senator and representative, every candidate for Congress and state and local officials in every state in our country.

In this great country, no one should go without health care. The 2008 elections will give us the chance to show that Americans are ready for real change.  Working families can be a big force behind winning secure, high-quality health care for all by 2009 if we make the 2008 elections a mandate for health care reform. 

Take the 2008 Health Care for America Survey today:

http://www.aflcio.org/issues/healthcare/survey/

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

P.S. We want to hear from as many voices as we can, as we fight for secure, high-quality health care. Get your friends, family and anyone else you know to take part in the 2008 Health Care for America Survey today.

February 21, 2008

The response to the 2008 AFL-CIO/Working America Health Care for America Survey has been staggering. Since the survey was launched, more than 18,000 working men and women have participated.

But we need your help.

Our goal: to have at least 20,000 working men and women make their voices heard on health care by Monday morning.

Click here to take the 2008 Health Care for America Survey.

And please tell your friends, family members and anyone else you know to take part in the 2008 Health Care for America Survey today.

We’ve received thousands of heart-wrenching health care stories—tragic ones like this from Marie in Wisconsin:

What would you do if you had to choose between food or medicine? Because of rising health care costs, that is a question that is frequently asked in my home. I work full time and have health care through my employer, but only a percentage is paid by them....I recently needed medication for an ailment, but did not get the medicine. I couldn’t. What would I choose? I choose my children and what they need, whether it be food or medicine. I am the one who will go without before they suffer.

Or this story from Randy in California, whose lack of health insurance led to bankruptcy:

I was turned away from an emergency room in San Francisco after the ER doc told me to go home and drink Pepto-Bismol for my increasingly painful abdominal cramps. I did not have insurance. I passed out on the street six hours later, and an ambulance took me to a different ER where they did emergency surgery and removed a gangrenous appendix. I was charged $38,000 for the surgery, a week in the hospital and ambulance service. I have declared bankruptcy.

The 2008 Health Care for America Survey gives you the chance to make your voice heard and ensures that leaders and candidates at every level understand what working families are experiencing.

Click here to take the 2008 Health Care for America Survey.

All individual survey responses are kept completely confidential.

Be sure to share your health care story and send the survey to friends and family.

The compiled survey results will be given to the presidential candidates, every U.S. senator and representative, every candidate for Congress and state and local officials in every state in our country.

In this great country, no one should go without health care. The 2008 elections will give us the chance to show that Americans are ready for real change. 

Working families can be a big force behind winning secure, high-quality health care for all by 2009 if we make the 2008 elections a mandate for health care reform. 

Take the 2008 Health Care for America Survey today:

http://www.aflcio.org/issues/healthcare/survey/

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

P.S. We want to hear from as many voices as we can, as we fight for secure, high-quality health care. Get your friends, family and anyone else you know to take part in the 2008 Health Care for America Survey today.