News

In one of the closest US Presidential elections in many years, CTW and AFL-CIO unions work tirelessly to get-out-the-vote for President Barrack Obama, before the general election on Tuesday, November 6. These efforts include one-on-one meetings with union members, phone banking, door-to-door canvassing, mailings, worksite meetings and all sorts of social media outreach. The election outcome could come down to voter turnout generally and the vote in what are referred to as the "battleground states"--Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. The stakes could not be higher for working Americans and the candidates' campaign platforms could not be more different.



Democratic President Barrack Obama is committed to expanding access to healthcare services for all Americans, protecting social security and medicare benefits for the elderly. He has an ambitious jobs program designed to get Americans back to work, he wants to change the tax system so that it is fair to working families and requires the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share. He wants to give immigrants, who are key contributors to the economy, a fair opportunity to become US citizens and the President believes in protecting reproductive rights for women.



Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, who runs a private equity firm, is committed to further tax breaks for business. He has stated that he will work to repeal healthcare reform (which means cutting-back on healthcare access and benefits), he wants to privatize parts the social security system and medicare benefits (which also mean cut-backs) and his idea of tax reform is to enhance tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans by eliminating estate taxes altogether and to give more tax breaks to business--operating on the long-discredited "trickle-down" theory of job growth. On human rights issues, Romney and his runningmate, Congressman Jim Ryan, want to restrict the right of hard-working immigrants to gain US citizenship and they would severely restrict reproductive rights for women.



This is why American unions will not stop their get-out-the-vote activities until the polls close on November 6. The outcome of this election will have a huge impact on working families across the country.