CHICAGO (AP) -- From union swing voters to retirees, organized labor is trying to wring out every vote possible for John Kerry in November.þþNo detail is too small for labor leaders here this week, like setting goals for door knocking and mailings and quotas for the number of staff and volunteers working against President Bush in 16 battleground states.þþSix in 10 union households supported Democrat Al Gore over Bush in 2000. Unions are working hard to get Kerry elected despite his limited labor support during the Democratic primaries.þþ``This is the very best mobilization program ever put together by the federation,'' said Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. ``But there's still work to be done. That's obvious.''þþThe AFL-CIO alone is spending $44 million to mobilize union households. AFSCME, with 1.5 million members, has budgeted $48 million, said McEntee, who has been assigned to oversee labor operations in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The 1.6 million-member Service Employees International Union has allocated $65 million.þþBush won Ohio in 2000, 51 percent to 47 percent. But if labor can boost its vote by 2 percentage points in Ohio, Bush has little chance of winning the state, McEntee said.þþNo Republican has been elected president without winning Ohio.þþLabor, for the first time, is attempting such voter turnout gains with very specific goals -- unions must meet numbers set for staff, volunteers, house and work visits, doors knocked and leaflets handed out. Progress is monitored carefully.þþSEIU's goals include 50,000 members to volunteer more than a million hours, making 7 million phone calls and knocking on 10 million doors. Six million fliers will be distributed at members' work sites. The union has tapped 2,004 members in so-called safe Democratic states, such as California, Connecticut and New York to work full-time in battleground states.þþThe AFL-CIO has ``put together an accountable system that's actually going to count what we do, and not hope that things get accomplished,'' said SEIU President Andy Stern.þþLabor is specifically targeting union swing voters and union retirees. AFL-CIO research shows that constant communication from unions can move those voters firmly into the Democratic column.þþRetirees are particularly important because they vote. Labor formed the Alliance for Retired Americans a few years ago to focus on the crucial voting bloc.þþAbout 20 percent of U.S. retirees live in the battleground states of Arizona, Florida, Nevada, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Polling conducted for the AFL-CIO in May found that retirees in those states slightly favored Kerry over Bush, except in Arizona.þþIn 2000, about 72 percent of registered voters ages 65 to72 voted, compared with 36 percent of voters ages 18 to 34.þþBush meanwhile is taking a swipe at labor on Thursday with a visit to a union training center in Las Vegas. The United Brotherhood of Carpenters, which left the AFL-CIO in 2001, owns the facility and is friendly with the Bush administration, hosting several Labor Day events with the president.þþþþ
Source: NY Times
