New Interactive Website Engages Union Members in Presidential Process

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/04/30/new-interactive-website-engages-union-members-in-presidential-process/

New Interactive Website Engages Union Members in Presidential Process
by James Parks, Apr 30, 2007

Union members and all working families now have a unique online center where they can get involved in selecting the next president. With so much at stake in the 2008 elections, union members are working to make sure working family issues are in the forefront of the political debate.

Working families vote: http://www.aflcio.org/issues/politics/

The new interactive Working Families Vote 2008 site offers the resources and opportunity for union members to make their voices heard in the AFL-CIO presidential endorsement process. The website examines presidential candidates’ positions on the key working family issues: the Employee Free Choice Act, good jobs, health care, trade and manufacturing, retirement security and education. It also features links to candidate videos, polls, blog roundups and everything working families need to know to be prepared for the 2008 elections. The site includes a Forum for discussion of key issues in the presidential race. The current thread-opening question asks, “What issues will get you to the polls in November 2008?”

The site, which launched Friday, also features an Action Center that allows users to let presidential candidates know where they stand on the issues.

The AFL-CIO Working Families Vote 2008 website is part of the broadest effort yet to involve union members in the AFL-CIO’s endorsement process, aiming for record union household turnout in 2008. Other features include a series of town hall meetings with candidates and a multicandidate forum in August.

In the 2006 elections, the AFL-CIO mobilized more than 13.6 million union household voters in 32 states in support of working family-friendly candidates. That mobilization played a key role in shifting the majority in Congress.