This election was a referendum on the Bush agenda and voters rejected it.  It was a course-changing election and the results are a great victory for America’s working families. 

We’re very proud and excited to see from the numbers this morning that union voters drove a wave that elected a pro-working families majority in the House and very likely in the Senate.  Union members voted for a pro-working families majority by a 50-point margin.   

Let me say a word about why.  Observers and commentators have tried to separate voters’ concerns into neat boxes -- Iraq.  The economy.  Health care.  Corruption.  But for working people, these are all different dimensions of a central reality, a country that is being dragged hard in the wrong direction. 

The Bush administration layered a terrible war in Iraq that has failed to make us safer onto an economy that has failed to help middle class Americans pay their bills.  And the leaders in control of Congress neglected the needs of working Americans while catering to corrupt special interests. 

They ignored health care insecurity.  They protected their friends in the drug and oil industries.  They refused to raise the minimum wage for the lowest paid workers, while raising their own pay and giving tax cuts to the wealthiest taxpayers.  They rewarded corporations for moving jobs offshore.  They tried to privatize the only retirement system millions of Americans have to depend on.  They responded to the deadliest year in coal mining in a decade by yielding to a back-door appointment of a coal industry executive as head the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

These and so many other violations of our basic values united diverse groups of voters in a powerful uprising.  I heard it from working mothers and retirees as I campaigned across the country.  From recent college graduates in the tech industries.  From high-school educated workers in a steel plant that once employed 30,000 and now employs 2000. 

We knew that our challenge at the AFL-CIO was to provide the organizing to transform the frustration and anger into political power.  We responded with the biggest, most energetic grassroots program in our history.  We spent $40 million.  It took many months of hard work and a unified effort by our affiliates.  We had 167,000 volunteers over the last four days  – 75,000 on Election Day alone.   

We were by far the most powerful turnout engine on the progressive side.  We knew the turnout of union household members and our new Working America members could change the power structure in our country, and that’s exactly what happened.  We showed once again that strong unions are essential to winning progressive change.

And we not only changed the control of Congress, we did what Congress refused to do and passed minimum wage initiatives in six states by strong margins. 

With Nancy Pelosi leading the House of Representatives and George Miller leading the Labor committee, we can take on the problems of working people.  And in the Senate, we’re going to have some exciting new voices who will make an immediate difference.  And we helped elect governors and state legislatures who are ready to work for working people. 

But we have no intention of depending naively on the Democrats to lead the way toward the changes working families showed they want.     

It was working people acting together who made the difference in the elections, and we’re going to keep up our campaign and keep working people working together to demand that Congress take decisive action.  In its first hours in office, our new Congress needs to pass a real minimum wage.  To restore workers’ freedom to organize and bargain.  To give Medicare the power to negotiate for lower drug prices.  To stop rewarding companies for sending our jobs overseas.  And to restore funding for college so all the children of working people can get an education. 

And we are going to insist that our new congressional leaders begin work immediately on other urgent priorities.  One of the first and biggest is health care – it is just a crime that people in the richest and most innovative country in the world go without health care.   Congress needs to work on a plan for real retirement security in our country.  On bringing our troops home from Iraq rapidly and making plans to fight the real war on terror.  On energy independence.  On restoring balance to our trade agenda to safeguard good jobs.  On restoring America’s leadership on human rights and civil rights. On adequately funding a world-class public education system.  On developing a reasonable immigration policy that protects the rights of all workers.  And on rebuilding America. 

Working people elected these men and women and we’re not just going to hold them accountable – we’re going to unite our country behind them to renew economic opportunities for all.

Now let me call on two of the union members who worked so hard as volunteers to make this happen.     

Contact: Steve Smith (202) 637-5018