In Working-Class Pennsylvania, Union Reps and Football Stars Make Strong Case for Obama -- and Against McCain

Organized labor has set its sights on winning Western Pennsylvania for Barack Obama.

AFL-CIO chief John Sweeny came to the IBEW Local 712 Hall in Vanport on October 25. He was joined by United Steelworker union top officials as well as members of Pittsburgh Steelers football team who were scheduled to be at the afternoon rally. In between, the unions deployed over 2200 rank-and-file union members to knock on the doors of some 31,000 union family homes across the state in a single afternoon, an effort that will become even more earnest in the next ten days.

I arrived in the morning's gray drizzle, unlike the sunny Fall days of the last month of Saturday 'Labor Walks'. Media work was my task for the day, and I made sure a New York Times reporter quickly met all the local union officials and pro-union local candidates.

While I was getting wired on black coffee and a jelly donut, Bob Schmetzer, a local IBEW official, handed me one of his home-made flyers. "Here, whaddya think of this?" he said. "I got it off the Internet." It was one of the now-classic pieces that expose the undercurrent of white supremacy in the campaign, using role reversal: "What if John McCain graduated at the top of his class at Harvard, and Obama came in at the bottom of his class with the record of a goof-off? What do you think Fox and the rightwing talk shows would be doing with that?" It gave a dozen more examples, using irony and good humor to make a very serious point.

"Terrific," I told Bob, "We have to get people thinking about things like this. It arms them against the right." He agreed, and worked the hall, pulling over one after another of his key guys, giving each of them the leaflet, going over it with them. He's thinking ahead, educating his troops, knowing that this battle's more than just dollars and cents.

Sweeny's arrival was low-key. Hovering nearby was a young union staff woman, Yael Foa, assigned by the AFL-CIO to work with us in Beaver County. She's talented and tireless, but stood to the side beaming as Sweeny greeted each union member as if he or she were family. Wearing his union jacket and cap, white hair and the trace Irish lilt in his voice, he's soft-spoken and warm with everyone, and gets the same in return. People like and respect him.

But on the platform he's a firebrand. "You're the reason Obama is out in front in Pennsylvania. Make no mistake; each of you here is very important. Of all the things that we do -- mailings, advertisements, phone banking -- there's nothing more effective or more persuasive than what you're doing today, a personal visit from one union brother or sister to another. Beaver County is the key to Western Pennslvania, Western Pennsylvania is the key to Pennsylvania--and without Pennsylvania, there's no way McCain can win!"

Sweeney closed by pushing the entire ticket, from Obama at the top to Vince Biancucci and Dennis Rousseau, both local guys with a union history, for state reps at the base. He stressed the AFL-CIO's core message: No more nonsense about privatizing Social Security and putting it into the stock market, he said. No more notions of taxing health care benefits -- extend health care to everyone. No more nonsense about de-regulation of banking and Wall Street. They've made a huge mess, and we need a New Deal and a new leadership to turn things around. Obama is the most pro-labor candidate we've ever seen, so shift into high gear and let's make him our president.

Now everyone was appropriately fired up as they donned "Steelworkers for Obama" T-Shirts and hit the streets of nearby mill towns and the back roads in the semi-rural township hills and hollows for the next four hours.

While this is a key area, it's only one small part of organized labor's effort in this campaign. Aside from millions of dollars spent on print and other media pushing 'Green Jobs', health care, and the right of unions to organize, both the AFL-CIO unions and 'Change to Win' unions like SEIU, are making a common front, working together on this election. This weekend alone, more than 250,000 union volunteers across the country are on the streets going door-to-door. Busloads from 'safe areas' like New York City spend weekends in the rural Pennsylvania Poconos or working-class neighborhoods of Philadelphia. Car caravans from Chicago work the factory towns of Indiana, Kentucky and Western Ohio. There's nothing quite like seeing it in motion: "Awesome!" as Obama's younger volunteers put it, although they've done some pretty awesome things themselves.

The mid-afternoon sun broke through the clouds. I returned to the union hall after joining the Beaver County Peace Links event-a weekly vigil at the Court House for over five years now, with our 'Bring the Troops Home Now! banner and 'Honk for Peace!' signs.

The union parking lot was filling up for 'Steel Blitz for Barack' time. Soon a bus would arrive carrying Dan Rooney, owner emeritus of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team; Edmond Nelson, former Steelers star defensive lineman; United Steelworkers (USW) International President Leo W. Gerard and other union officials and players.

Outsiders might not get it, but in an area where 'Steelerism' comes close to being a state religion, THIS IS A BIG DEAL. Dozens of young, mostly white kids, boys and girls, were bundled up against the wind, plastering each others' coats, front and back, with 'Union Voters for Obama' and 'Steelers for Obama' stickers, clutching autograph books, waiting for their heroes.

Inside, Billy George, head of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, warmed up the packed hall. George is from the tough McDonald Heights neighborhood of nearby Aliquippa, home of defunct Jones and Laughlin Steel, once the largest steel mill in the world. He was with USW Local 1211, a powerful and militant local in its day.

"What time is it?" he yelled into the mike. "UNION TIME!" the room yelled back, no prompting needed. George predicted that the Steelers will win their division, then the Superbowl, and then he asked, "Who will be the President to greet and open the Superbowl?" "BARACK OBAMA!" the crowd roared.

George got serious and turned to labor history. He spoke about the fierce battles by the Steelworkers Organizing Committee in the 1930s and the historical marker that sits at the old plant gate in downtown Aliquippa. The marker recalls the 1937 Supreme Court decision in favor of Aliquippa's workers in the case that finally broke the back of reaction and allowed nationwide union organization to spread and FDR's New Deal to accelerate.

"Social Security came out of this," George explained. "Our right to organize came out of this. These are the most important things we've ever won, and now McCain and the Republicans want to 'privatize' it or take it back. Can you imagine if they put your social security in the stock market? No way, no way we'll let them. I know everyone here agrees with me, but I want four full shifts out of each and every one of you in the next ten days. Get this message out to your neighbors, relatives, and everyone else around here that knows better, or ought to."

Next up was Leo Girard, the Canadian-born international president of the United Steelworkers. Even with his north-of-the-border accent, he knows the exact language of this group today.

"We've been getting the shaft," Girard said, "but this is our time, we're going to turn it completely around. We've never had a candidate like Barack Obama." After the thank-you's and standard lines, Girard asks the workers here to follow a thought experiment with him: to imagine a candidate born to wealth and privilege of the high officer class. Follow him as he fritters away his studies. Recognize and respect his service, but when he gets back, he dumps his first wife and marries into brewery millions. He goes to Congress with the goal of letting the banks run wild, and voting against the unions 85 percent of the time. He's so wealthy, he doesn't even know how many homes he has.

Now imagine, Girard went on, a candidate with a single mother, who works hard, but leaves him mainly with Kansas grandparents to raise him. They sacrifice everything to get him an education. He gets to Harvard, top of his class. Wall Street is offering hundreds of thousands of dollars just for sign-up bonuses, but what does he do? He decides to give something back. He works for a church group on the South Side of Chicago, with the unemployed laid-off workers, many of them steelworkers, helping them get retrained, helping them find a future.

"The Republicans want to talk about character!" Girard shouted. "What does this tell you about it? What does this tell you about the difference between these two men? I listened to rightwing radio yesterday, making fun of Obama for going to visit his dying grandmother, the woman who gave everything to see him succeed. He set aside the time to see her while she could still hear his voice, and they mock it."

"McCain and the Republicans have been running around like 'Robin Hood in Reverse,' then dump all this slime on Obama and us, and we're supposed to shut up and like it?," he asked. "No, take the measure of these two men. Take the measure of which one stands with family as we know it, take the measure of which one can benefit the working class that we're part of. Obama is going to be a great president, and we're going to put him there."

By this time there was not a dry eye in the house. The Steeler's Dan Rooney took the mike to add his admiration of Obama. But the most powerful applause comes for linebacker Edmond Nelson, a huge man who dwarfed everyone else on the platform.

"I'm for Barack Obama because I hate this war in Iraq," he shouted out as his opening line. "I hate this war because of the lies told us about 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' to drag us into it. I'm for Obama because I hate what's been done to our soldiers and the people of Iraq." It brought the strongest applause of the afternoon.

But Nelson, an African American, closed with "I'm for Barack Obama because I want to see people who look like me get a fair shake and a decent chance in this society." Again, powerful applause from a group that's over 90 percent white, but knows exactly what he means.

As the autograph lines started forming, one of the AFL-CIO chiefs brought the room back to order. "One last speaker, one of the most important. She's going to tell you what to do."

Kyra Ricci, a petite twenty-something with a terrific smile, but also a "listen up now" sense of command, laid out the tasks of the final days. She has her young people with their sign-up clipboards stationed around the hall so they won't be gotten by without a commitment.

It was the perfect counterpoint to end the day. Three powerful movements are coming together here -- organized labor, the African American fight for justice and a new antiwar youth insurgency. Given the sense of class-conscious solidarity and unity in the hall, it's hard to see how McCain and the GOP can stop them. But it's also clear that an Obama White House, in calling for partners for 'change from below,' will also face forces that will not be easily deflected or denied.

Comments

[annabella1966]

Phenomenal reporting -- thank you so much for writing this article!

[brenna1975]

I live in rural PA right outside of Pitt and I can tell you she is not lying about the Steelers having a lot of pull with us. I have heard from a lot of people in my area that checked Obama out because of the buzz that the Steelers created when they endorsed Obama. I really don't think people in my area will vote just because of the Steelers but at least it created the interest to check Obama out instead of listening to all the crap the Repubs put out there.

[Pearldiver]

I was born in Defiance, Ohio and grew up in a very small town not far away. I left Ohio at 17 to go to college and have hardly been back since.
I am embarrassed and ashamed at the provicialism, racism, and bigotry of the typical Ohioan.
It is impossible to understand why so many want to vote against their own interests.
Living vicariously through the rich men who have sucked their wealth out of the lives of the poor makes for a miserable life.
If McCain and Palin get into office, I guess all you Ohio "real folks" will still have your TV and Bible fairy tales. Enjoy them, that's all you'll get!

[CanuckforObama]

This is America at its best! Amazing story.

[JenMI]

Could anyone really believe, all of a sudden in 2008, Republicans in power are going to care about anyone but themselves?

[repubforobama]

wow, what a beautiful article. great reporting.

[thepoyote]

An incredibly moving article. I don't have any illusions about how hard real change will be, but to hear and feel the hope assocaited with and generated by this campaign, I believe that real and lasting and positive change can and will happen. I hope that the generosity of spirit that was captured in this article continues through many succesful years of an O & Joe administration.

[unite4change]

VOTE AND WE WILL GET THE CHANGE WE NEED. YES WE CAN, YES WE CAN, YES WE CAN!

[readyfornewleadership]

Yes we can!

[wdw101]

i'll bet you can't

[ravjav]

Hope you didn't bet the farm.

[iluvsam]

Very, very moving piece. Thank you.

[JXJASON]

A great article.

My girlfriend and I, both Republicans for over 30 years, voted early and checked the box for Democrats.

We live in rural PA., are retired, and have campaigned for Senator Obama and Biden in our region.

If you are concerned about our future, as I know you are, then get to the polls as early as you can and VOTE FOR OBAMA/BIDEN 08.

[thecanadian]

Fantastic Organization! Wonderful to hear that "working people" are truly there for the U.S.A. Thank you! Hope you are watching the polling stations too so that the GOP's can't steal this election Too.
Pass this on AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka on Racism and Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QIGJTHdH50&feature=related

[VivaMariaElena]

Yes

[majorteddy]

Maybe McCain should get back to Arizona and campaign there before he loses his home state. Oh, by the way, I heard the stock market went down another couple of hundred points again today. Are the fundamentals of the economy still strong?

[majorteddy]

A man with a dinner bucket voting for McCain-Palin is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders.