WASHINGTON (PAI)–Labor-backed Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry’s loss to GOP nominee George W. Bush on Nov. 2 means “we have to do more” in mobilizing and organizing, AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney says.

In a post-election press conference Nov. 3, Sweeney lauded labor’s efforts at the polls, thanking union members for campaigning and turning out in record numbers.

Exit polls commissioned by the AFL-CIO show union households were 24 percent of the electorate, almost double the 13 percent of union members in the U.S. workforce. And they backed Kerry by a 5.8-million vote margin, or 65 percent-33 percent, Sweeney and pollster Geoff Garin said.

And in absolute numbers, more unionists voted than ever before, Sweeney and the others said.

But it wasn’t enough.

Nearly complete unofficial returns showed Bush with 59.096 million votes (51 percent) nationwide, to Kerry’s 55.53 million votes (48 percent). Ralph Nader and others got 1 percent.

“Union households accounted for one of every four voters–27 million voters,” Sweeney said. “Union members voted two to one for Kerry, and the margin was a little bigger in battleground states. Our program was the biggest ever…I’ve never seen our members so energized,” he stated.

“We’re going to take that energy, that momentum, that technology, that field operation and start right now building a move-ment that will keep turning this country around,” he declared.

Part of that effort, he said, will depend on coalitions–for getting out the vote, issues education and for making sure all votes counted–that the AFL-CIO built with the NAACP and other organizations before and during the campaign.

Not counting unionists who volunteered or worked for independent friendly groups, the AFL-CIO and its member unions mobilized 5,000 paid staffers, more than 225,000 volunteers, staffed hundreds of phone banks, knocked on 6 million doors and distributed 32 million fliers. The phone bank at AFL-CIO headquarters finally ended at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, Election Day. (continued) Press Associates, Inc. (PAI) — 11/8/2004 (Election, cont. -2)

The AFL-CIO spent $45 million, while SEIU spent $65 million and its members gave another $28 million to independent “527” progressive groups, union President Andy Stern said in a “blog.” Other unions spent millions more and sent hundreds and thousands of workers into the field.

Sweeney said the federation also sent monitors to 850 “high risk polling places” in swing states such as Ohio and Florida, and met with local election officials, putting them on notice that a repeat of 2000’s Florida fiasco would be challenged.

The results of all that effort appeared in Garin’s exit poll survey of 1,135 active and retired unionists, with 653 in battleground states and an extra 400-unionist survey in Ohio.

Garin’s poll, for Peter D. Hart Research Associates, put the Kerry-Bush spread at 65 percent-33 percent, and 68-31 in the battlegrounds. CNN’s exit poll, of 13,531 respondents, showed the same union household share of 24 percent of all voters. But it had a 60-39 Kerry lead. Sweeney’s 5.8-million-vote Kerry lead among unionists is consistent with CNN’s figures.

“Union turnout went up,” said Guy Molyneux, Garin’s colleague. “The 24 percent that the exit polls are reporting is of a larger electorate, so there was a modest increase in the union total” in raw votes, he added.

But the 24 percent figure for union households is slightly below the 26 percent labor mustered among the overall electorate in both 2000 and 2002, despite what Sweeney called labor’s largest and most united electoral effort ever, this year.

It is also below the AFL-CIO’s private goal of a 31 percent union household share of overall voters, which political director Karen Ackerman stated at a conference months ago, but denied on Nov. 3. She added unions also had to fight declining membership in the last four years “because so many good jobs were outsourced by this administration.

“Our goal was to maintain the percentage, and we did, and the (absolute) numbers increased,” Ackerman said.

Garin said Kerry carried union white men by 21 percent, but lost white men overall by 18 percent. Kerry carried union white women by 35 percent, but lost white women overall by 4 percent.

CNN’s exit poll said Kerry lost white men–38 percent of all voters–by 61-38, and lost white women, who were 41 percent of all voters, by 54-45. Both Garin and CNN showed majorities of non-white voters for Kerry. (continued) Press Associates, Inc. (PAI) — 11/8/2004 (Election, cont. -3)

Union voters who backed Kerry did so based on economic issues, Garin said. “But Bush’s vote” among unionists surveyed “was driven very much by two things: Terrorism and moral values.”

Garin’s data said 42 percent of union voters named the economy and jobs as one of their top issues and Kerry had a 71-point margin among them. The war in Iraq was second among the top issues, at 40 percent. There, Kerry had a 51-point lead.

But terrorism/national security tied for third among unionists, with 24 percent naming it a key issue–and those union voters backed Bush by 47 points. “Moral values” drew 16 percent of unionists, and they backed Bush by a 59-point margin.

And Garin said that unionists who named “character” as a key to their vote split for Bush, 50 percent-48 percent. A key Bush campaign theme was to question Kerry’s character, in Congress and during the Vietnam War. Those who decided on issues backed Kerry by a 69-29 margin, Garin’s poll added.

“We focused on issues of overtime, health care, outsourcing, job creation and economic security,” Ackerman responded to a question on impact of social issues, like gay marriage referenda.

“There was no mandate given on domestic issues” by union voters who backed Bush, Garin said. “They were not saying ‘I’m signing up with the Bush campaign because I agree with his domestic agenda or policies here at home.'”

Garin added data show even pro-Bush unionists oppose the Republican nominee’s domestic agenda, including his labor agenda.

Sweeney was not specific about what “more” would be, after the Kerry loss, but he made several points about the future:

* Labor “will focus on the role of the Democratic Party and advise them where they can be structured,” as well. “Mobilization and focus on issues important to working families is something” the party could emphasize, he added.

* Unions would put a further stress on the “unity and solidarity” they discovered during the campaign, as part of the “more” Sweeney said they must undertake.

“We have an excellent program, and we’ll keep our grass- roots activists going. We’ve got to keep on track and keep our members active. That’s our greatest strength,” he declared.

* Focus more on economic issues. “We have to aim higher and that’s what we’ll be doing. We’ll be involving them more and more on issues important to working families,” he added.

 

---