Report From Cleveland: Working America's Elections Effort For A Working Family Friendly Government

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/4546

WIN Special Report From Cleveland: Working America's Elections Effort For A Working Family Friendly Government - 11/01/06

By Doug Cunningham

(Cleveland, Ohio) - On the ground in Ohio with the AFL-CIO and Working America the final, energetic push is on to elect a working family friendly Congress, governor and senator in a key political state. And the times they are a changin'. With 600,000 members in Ohio alone, Working America Director Karen Nussbaum says a lot of hard door to door work is beginning to pay off. Nussbaum says as Working America activists go door to door - in Ohio and throughout America - they find working families struggling with the economy and eager to make big changes.

: "Working class and middle class people now begin to see that it may be possible to actually have an effect - to use their vote to change the situation around jobs and the economy."

Jonathon Pollard is an enthusiastic Working America activist among the 250 canvassers Working America fields each night in Ohio.

: "Workin' America is gonna win this election. We've been out here as a team - rain,sleet, snow, cold weather, good days, rainy days. We are a canvassing group that's on the rise and we've been making a very, very, very big change in Ohio and we're lookin' forward to taking this election and also takin' 2008 elections."

Going door to door talking to union members and signing up non-union members for Working America, Kellie Hughes is working to create the change many here feel is coming to Ohio on election day. Union retiree Johnny Arrowood answered one of the doors Kellie knocked on in Elyria.

: "I hope the Democrats take a few more seats so they can have control again, because right now it's just terrible. Everything costs so much. It's just terrible. It's just big business gettin' richer and richer and the small and middle guy just hurtin' more and more."

Cody Osbourne, another Working America activist here in Ohio, says through solidarity and mass action real change is possible for America's working families.

: "Together we can make a difference as opposed to every person by themselves. Our voices are gonna be heard if we all come together."

Working America's Nate McNeil says the group's social change vision for working families continues after the election.

: "We don't just win elections, you know, we make change socially and economically. And that's the vision I think Working America has for the future."