Thursday, April 24, 2014

Ohio workers gear up to elect friend of labor, Ed Fitzgerald, as governor



Ohio Gov. John Kasich is up for re-election in Ohio this November, and Teamsters aren't about to forget SB5, Kasich's attempt to destroy government-worker unions.

In 2011, the Ohio Legislature passed SB 5, but a historic campaign succeeded in overturning the anti-worker law.

Now working people in Ohio are gearing up to send Kasich packing despite the vast amounts of Koch-linked campaign money he'll have available to him.

The AFL-CIO just posted this video (above) to kick off the campaign:
In its most targeted Ohio political program to date, the AFL-CIO program of voter education and voter turnout will be broad in its scope. In addition to its traditional labor-to-labor outreach, the AFL-CIO programs will be geared toward all middle-class Ohioans, regardless of union membership, as the organization seeks to educate voters on the economic issues central to the debate in the election. Together with its community-based affiliate Working America, the Ohio AFL-CIO has a traditional universe of more than 1 million voters in Ohio. 
The Labor 2014 operation in Ohio will involve more than 35,000 volunteer shifts that will cover all aspects of the campaign, including voter registration, voter education and voter turnout. The effort is to include an unprecedented level of more than 2 million combined door knocks, phone dials and leaflets distributed at worksites and millions of additional voter contacts through direct mail and electronic and social media.
(Look for our brother Matt Ford, political coordinator for Teamsters Local 507 at about 1:36.).