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Labor Looks Forward
APWU Web News Article #20-04, Nov., 2004
With the results of the election final, the labor movement and other groups have begun the process of analyzing the vote. “We will do that in the days and weeks ahead as well,” said APWU President William Burrus.
In remarks made shortly after the election results were finalized, Burrus said, “The majority of Americans appear to have chosen a president based not on their economic interests or concern over the war in Iraq, but on their belief that George W. Bush can best protect them from terrorism.” Voters also based their decision on the social and cultural issues that have tended to divide our nation in recent years, he said.
“Labor will remain united,” Burrus said, “and continue to work to protect the interests of America’s working families.
“For our part, the APWU must continue to protect the interests of postal workers,” Burrus said. “It is worth noting that the day after the election, lobbyists for advertising mailers renewed their calls for postal ‘reform,’ urging lawmakers to significantly overhaul the bills currently before the U.S. House and Senate.”
“Buoyed by the victory of the Bush administration, the major mailers hope to modify our collective bargaining process to their benefit.”
Labor's Role
In a post-election news conference AFL-CIO President John Sweeney commended labor’s efforts at the polls: “Union households accounted for one of every four voters,” he said. “Union members voted two-to-one for Kerry, and the margin was a little bigger in battleground states.”
But America’s workers have to “start right now to build a movement that will keep turning this country around,” he said.
Post-election polling shows that union voters who backed Kerry did so based on economic issues. But unionists who voted for Bush did so because of “terrorism and moral values.”
Data from Peter D. Hart Research Associates show that 42 percent of union voters named the economy and jobs as a top issue: Kerry won by a 71-point margin among those voters. Among union members who identified Iraq as a major concern, Kerry won three to one. But among unionists who felt that terrorism and national security was a top issue, Bush received three out of four votes.
