COMMENTARY: Your Union Vote Makes a Difference. Please pick a Volunteer Shift with your Union

312 votes. 8,770 votes. 2 votes.

That’s how many votes Labor-endorsed candidate Al Franken won his 2008 U.S. Senate election by, how many votes Labor-endorsed candidate Mark Dayton won his 2010 gubernatorial election by, and how many votes Labor-endorsed candidate Dwayne Lowman won his 2013 Bloomington city council election by, respectively.

Yes, every vote makes a difference.

Here in Minnesota this year, we are at a pivotal moment in time. Whether or not Minnesota becomes a “right-to-work” state like our neighbors depends on electing our Labor-endorsed Tim Walz as Governor.

We expect elections up and down the ballot to be very close this year.

Your union vote makes a difference. 

Unfortunately, just doing politics isn’t enough. The increasing political attacks on our unions have been a hard lesson in this truth. Critical to our survival, our union member organizing is our most important work and our most important job. Politics is an important arm within that organizing work but won’t save us alone.  

That’s why the member-to-member political education program which we at the MRLF and our affiliated unions collectively run is so important. It’s union members talking to other union members about working family issues. We also talk about candidates, but not before talking about our union values. These conversations strengthen the union and make sure that we are doing our part to help elect our Labor-endorsed candidates. 

None of this organizing and member-to-member political education can happen without volunteers. No one else can do the work but us —that includes you!

Pick a shift to volunteer with your union this year, whether that’s talking to union members in the workplace or knocking doors in your neighborhood. If we all throw in a little, it will make a big difference.

Just imagine if we had 10 fewer volunteers in 2008, 200 fewer volunteers in 2010 or even 1 fewer volunteer in 2013; we would have lost critical races that would have changed the leadership of our nation, state and cities for years to come.

The Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO invites you to join the following Labor 2018 Days of Action:

  • Saturday, October 13, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
  • Saturday, October 27, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Several locations will be available each day. PLUS Daily door-knocks out of MRLF offices starting at 4:00 p.m.

For more information or to RSVP, contact MRLF campaigns manager
Casey Hudek at 612-913-6743 or casey@minneapolisunions.org

For the complete schedule, please visit: https://mnaflcio.org/volunteer-events

Filiberto Nolasco Gomez is a former union organizer and former editor of Minneapolis based Workday Minnesota, the first online labor news publication in the state. Filiberto focused on longform and investigative journalism. He has covered topics including prison labor, labor trafficking, and union fights in the Twin Cities.

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