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by Seth Michaels, Nov 4, 2008

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/11/04/obama-biden-win-for-working-families

Barack Obama, president for working families.

We’re cheering as we write: Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will be the next U.S. president and vice president, respectively, propelled to the nation’s highest office with the critical support of union members in the labor movement’s biggest-ever get-out-the-vote mobilization. The Obama-Biden ticket so far has won 284 electoral votes, more than the 270 needed for victory and all votes from the states have not been tallied. And although the Senate count is not yet final, working families so far have voted in another four union-endorsed candidates to the U.S. Senate.   

After eight years of an administration hostile to unions, workers and a working-family friendly economy, America’s union members helped bring about much-needed change by electing Obama and working family-friendly candidates up and down the ballot.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says Obama is a leader who reached out to workers and spoke to their economic concerns, and workers responded by getting behind Obama with strong support and volunteer efforts.

Barack Obama brings new hope to America’s working families, and our increased majority in the Senate means we can translate that hope into reality.

We salute labor leaders and volunteers all across our country for a record turnout of voters from union households—they made the difference in critical states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and so many others. We congratulate Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Our prayers and our continuing support are with them as we begin the arduous task of turning our country around. 

Obama earned the trust of working families on the economy, and he proposed strong policies on crucial working family issues like health care, job creation, retirement security and the Employee Free Choice Act. He opposes the anti-worker policies of George W. Bush and John McCain on trade and taxes. Throughout the campaign, he’s focused on those issues, not trivia and misleading attacks.

Obama has stood with America’s workers, whether marching on a picket line during the presidential primary or joining volunteers at a Labor 2008 phone bank as his final act of the campaign. Obama’s success is a sign of what’s possible when a candidate speaks to workers’ concerns and pledges to fight with them, not against them.

AFSCME President Gerald McEntee, the AFL-CIO Political Committee chairman, writes on Huffington Post that Obama’s campaign has united the union movement around principles that will make life better for working people.

The values we stand for have never been more important: 

• There is dignity in work and the work people do has value.
  
• We should reward work with good pay and benefits, and workers should have a voice on the job.
  
• People who have worked hard and played by the rules all their lives shouldn’t have to struggle in their golden years—they should be able to enjoy the retirement they’ve earned. 

These values have brought us together in common cause, with one goal: electing Barack Obama because he will fight every day on behalf of working people, and putting candidates in office at every level who will build with us a better America.    

It’s a historic day in this country, and all of us in the union movement are rightfully proud of what we’ve helped to accomplish. With Obama and Biden in the White House, working families know they have allies who will work hard to turn around America.

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