Massive Labor Voter Turnout Enables
Democrats to Win Control of Congress

Union households across the country were jubilant, as they learned that their votes, especially in key industrial states, had helped the Democratic Party gain control of both houses of Congress.

An election night survey by Peter D. Hart Research Associates found that, in House races, union voters supported Democratic candidates 74 percent to 26 percent for Republican candidates.

By large majorities, American voters repudiated President Bush’s conduct of the war in Iraq, the tax cuts and special favors for the wealthy, the corruption and sex scandals involving prominent Republicans and the total disregard of the needs of working people.

While hailing the Democratic victory, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said: “This election, though, was not just about what working families reject. It is also about what we embrace: fairness, opportunity, real family values, security and shared responsibilities for those around us who need our help.”

Anna Burger, Chair of Change to Win, commented: “Activists from Change to Win are ready to welcome their new leadership, but with an expectation. These new leaders must do their part to restore the American Dream ‹a paycheck that supports a family, affordable health care, a secure retirement, and most of all, a better life for our kids.”

Sweeney offers a long “wish list” in behalf of working people that he’d like Congress to work on:

• Raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour.

• Restore workers’ freedom to form unions ‹pass the Employee Free Choice Act and reverse the recent National Labor Relations Board ruling that allows employers to deny workers union rights by classifying them as “supervisors.”

• Overturn the ban that prohibits Medicare from negotiating with drug companies for more affordable prescription drugs.

• Stop sending our best jobs overseas ‹reward companies that create jobs at home, instead of giving tax dollars to companies that export our jobs.

The new Congress will also be told to:

• Provide quality, affordable health care for all.

• Write new plans to provide real retirement security for America¹s workers and retirees, starting with reforming corporate bankruptcy laws that enable companies to dump their obligations to employees.

• Bring our troops home from Iraq rapidly and make our neighborhoods safer and more secure by fighting the real war on terror and preparing for natural disasters

• End the tax breaks for Big Oil and make serious investments in renewable energy to reduce our dependency on foreign oil.

• Revitalize manufacturing and safeguard good jobs by ending China’s currency manipulation, restoring balance to our trade agenda and rejecting trade deals that do not guarantee workers’ rights and environmental protections.

• Make America a leader again in respecting human rights and civil rights at home and around the world.

• Adequately fund and support a world-class public education system for all our children.

• Develop a reasonable immigration system that protects the rights of all workers and provides a path for citizenship for hard-working, tax-paying immigrant workers who come to our nation seeking a better life.

• Rebuild America’s roads, bridges, schools, water systems and other infrastructure, while creating good jobs to get the work done.

Now that’s a pretty good checklist of what we want and would like to see happen. It should keep the newly-elected Congress plenty busy if they take us seriously. But how much we get depends not only on them, but on each of us ‹what we¹re ready to do to get them. We should begin to find out fairly soon.

Our two weekly columns (Labor Talk and The World of Labor) can also be viewed at our Web site: www.laboreducator.org Harry Kelber's e-mail address is: hkelber@igc.org.