Posted on November 6, 2006

Traveling the country to meet, talk and campaign with wonderfully determined union members has been an incredible opportunity. They all have their own reasons for giving their time and energy to motivate other workers to vote. I've heard story after story of personal crisis; relief of having a good union job, but concerned about family members who don't.

I've heard the anxiety from mothers like Connie, an Iowa nurse worried about the safety of her son in Iraq, and angry about the failed policies of this administration. She is working for change in direction, priorities, and leadership.

Across the country union members work hard to offer their children a better life but are deeply concerned about their futures. People like Shannon Ross, a member of UNITE/HERE in Missouri, and Kevin Hutton, a Teamster in Michigan.

They've never met, but both shared a sense of hope when their unions joined together in Change to Win to truly help unite more workers in their industries. And both desperately want change -- each became politically active for the first time this cycle.

Shannon Ross began at minimum wage ten years ago packing orders at Alsco laundry, a linen provider in St. Louis. Back then, she could barely feed her children and often went without food herself.

She later formed a union with her co-workers and won a contract. Now she earns $9.70 an hour with yearly increases and can begin to imagine her two teenagers attending college. But she remembers the hardship - it was difficult enough to pay off the $1,200 in gas bills last winter, she can't imagine what a mother still earning $5.15 would do.

That's why Shannon and 500 other volunteers from CtW unions canvassed St. Louis neighborhoods this weekend in support of the minimum wage bill. I knocked on doors too, and met voters who not only knew about the initiative, they knew how to vote: YES on proposition B; it's simple common sense. Raising the minimum wage is both an economic AND moral issue, so it was no surprise I found support across party and economic lines.

Kevin Hutton, a longtime shop steward, has worked at Faygo Pop for 27 years but shied away from politics. Not anymore. This year he says he couldn't afford not to get involved - a divisive amendment that would allow universities and employers to discriminate against women and people of color is on the Michigan ballot.

Kevin fears his 20-year-old son won't be able to achieve the American Dream without equal opportunity and real change in this country. So he got approved leave, became a full-time volunteer, and is spreading the word about how important it is to vote down Amendment 2 and support candidates who stand up for the issues that really matter.

Those issues - good jobs, health care and a paycheck that can support a family - are what I'm talking about today in Michigan with union members like Kevin who back Governor Jennifer Granholm, a longtime supporter of working families.

I'm here with Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa and there's amazing energy and excitement on the governor's campaign bus!

We met with workers early this morning at a Kroger distribution warehouse in Livonia. They know firsthand how politics can make a difference. Gov. Granholm intervened and worked with the company to find an alternative to outsourcing and protect 500 of their local union jobs from moving out of state.

Now we're off to Saginaw, where union activists have made over 5,000 member-to-member voter contacts here in the last few weeks alone. I'll be meeting with clerks and other workers at city hall united in SEIU Local 517M. I can't wait to hear about their efforts to strengthen their voices through politics.

Everywhere I go I ask two simple questions. Are we ready to vote? Are we ready to win? Two ballot initiatives in the Midwest galvanized two seemingly ordinary workers to do the extraordinary - and there are countless Shannons and Kevins I have met from Portland to Pittsburgh, Denver to Dubuque, Concord to Columbus. I know tomorrow we will see that ALL of them made the difference.

Working families are ready and they are united in their desire for change. Together, we will make work pay in this country again.

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Anna Burger is the Chair of Change to Win.  This entry is part of Anna's 2006 Campaign Notebook.  Return to the Campaign Notebook home page for more information, or to read other entries.