Organized labor aids Obama in Ohio

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has relied on union support to get out the vote in the
crucial swing state of Ohio during the final hours of the election.

The Service Employees
International Union (SEIU) is claiming credit for running Sen. Obama’s (Ill.) ground
game in major footholds throughout the state that proved decisive in President
Bush’s victory over Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004.

{mosads}“We’re taking
turf from the campaign and running it for ourselves,” said spokesman Marcus
Mrowka. “We’re pretty much driving turnout and handling all the volunteers in
all the precincts in these cities.”

Between the
cities of Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, Dayton, Lorain, Akron and
Youngstown, the union has employed more than 200 full-time employees, who, with
volunteers, have knocked on over 560,000 doors and made over 71,000 phone
calls, Mrowka said.

SEIU is one of
the nation’s largest unions and includes more than a million healthcare
workers, but it is hardly the only union investing resources on behalf of Obama
and other Democratic candidates.

“We’re in more
states than we’ve ever been in before,” said Steve Smith, a spokesman for the
AFL-CIO. “We’ve got the largest get-out-the-vote operation we’ve ever had this
year.”

Smith said that
in addition to major efforts on behalf of Obama in Ohio, the AFL-CIO has
focused heavily on senatorial races. “Getting to 60 [votes] has been a priority
for us from day one in the campaign,” he said.

Both Mrowka and
Smith said their organizations had focused a number of resources Tuesday on
Senate races in Oregon and Minnesota, where Democratic candidates Jeff Merkley
(in Oregon) and Al Franken (in Minnesota) are waging tough challenges to Republican
incumbents.

“There’s no other
organization in the country that’s done more to endorse Barack Obama and
pro-worker candidates than SEIU,” Mrowka added.

Smith said that
additional seats in the Senate could mean passage of the so-called Employee
Free Choice Act, which would eliminate the right of employers to demand a
secret-ballot election before a union can be certified and is the most coveted
piece of legislation by the labor movement. The bill, which would allow a
majority of workers to sign petition cards certifying a union, passed in the
House in 2007 but failed to get the 60 votes required for contentious
legislation in the Senate.