CONTACT: Connie Mabin, 412-562-2616
PITTSBURGH – At the United Steelworkers’ (USW) recent international convention, President Leo W. Gerard called upon members to “seize the moment” and work for change in the most important election of our lifetimes.
Across the nation, the union’s members heeded the call with unprecedented activism – much of it featured in a new video being released today, “Road to Change.”
The video caps off an exciting week in which USW members have been celebrating victories by Barack Obama and other pro-worker candidates, particularly in key battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Florida where the USW mounted historical outreach efforts to educate voters on key issues and talk through other factors such as race.
The efforts clearly paid off – polling done the day after Obama’s historic victory showed USW members in Pennsylvania, Ohio and other key states supported Obama in numbers far greater than they supported Democrat John Kerry in 2004.
The USW political campaign had more than 500 people working full-time in more than 31 states, mobilizing members and working families. More than 11,000 Steelworkers volunteered their time to ensure Barack Obama’s victory. The strategy included calling and speaking to more than 100,000 union members in battlegrounds states between Labor Day and the election. Nearly 5 million pieces of persuasive literature was mailed from USW international, district and local union offices.
“I’m so proud of our union. As this video shows, everyone worked their hearts out,” USW International President Leo W. Gerard said. ”But as President-Elect Obama reminded us, all we’ve earned is the opportunity to change. A lot of hard work is ahead of us. We have to put people back to work, provide health care for all, solve our economic crisis, and do much more to give our kids and grandkids a real future – that work has just begun and will take all of us to build on this movement.”
The video can be seen on the United Steelworkers’ new interactive Web site, www.usw.org, or within this multimedia news release.
The USW represents 850,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada employed in the industries of metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining and the service sector.