As we near November and the first anniversary of Obama’s historic election victory, it seems a fitting point to reflect on what this regularly referenced and successful campaign entailed. Not least, the timing is key as here at home we enter the ‘long campaign’ to next year’s general election. So what can be learnt from the Obama victory and how can it be applied in the next six months? In particular, the US unions were at the heart of the campaign to get the Democrats into the White House and, in many aspects, led the way in demonstrating how organisations like unions can communicate with their members and ultimately impact on the result of a general election.
The US unions carried out their own campaign, distinct from the main Democrat operation and built on the back of a long political education campaign: member to member campaigning, seconded full time activists, tailored union specific branded merchandise, union phone banks – each of these building on the existing relationship between a union and its members. The central and most effective tenet of all this work was the focus on peer led contact in that. Although members were provided with centrally guided messages, it was union members talking to union members – at shift changeovers and after work in the home.
Many unions came together and provided resources for ‘Working America’. Working America is a campaigning and lobbying organisation, affiliated to the AFL (The American Federation of Labor), and builds on the efforts directed at union members by reaching out and additionally supporting non union workers whose employers do not recognise unions. In addition, the combined unions ‘Working America’ website targeted working people to come out and campaign for the Democrats and their union friendly policies.
The United Steelworkers (USW), Unite’s partner union in the USA and Canada, was a key union player in the campaign and targeted its activity at its members. Union members both within and outside of worksites receive direct mail, phone calls, emails and plant publications. All workplace activity is done through local stewards and reps, who can access resources online similar to that of the Labour party’s print creator. These communications will, throughout the year, inform members on key political issues and, come election time, will say who the union is endorsing and why.
For the USW, political education is an integral part of the organising agenda, something which shines through come major election time. Local unions are given training to work on elections in their home patches and workplaces. In some cases, the union has negotiated in member’s contracts that they are able to pull them out of their day jobs for election work and pay their salaries for them. This will often focus on what the US terms ‘battleground states’, the key states that are a deciding factor in the outcome of a presidential election. In the 2008 election this was a total of 400 people in 31 states.
There was a massive daily operation calling up members through a computerised phone centre, conducting regular polls and putting the case for the union candidate. The system is well used throughout the year to get members’ views on particular issues and to check in on their concerns, which will then be fed into the union’s political and campaigning work.
But how do we bring this back home? What could work for us? In the first instance the American experience demonstrates that the union vote matters – 60% of union members in America said they voted for Obama, which is all the more significant when you consider that union density here in the UK is more than twice that in the US. Unions can influence election outcomes and by extension, the programme of the elected government.
In more practical terms, there are lessons to be learnt. A key factor in the success of the US model is the importance of involving, supporting and communicating with members locally and in the workplace. Also by talking regularly with members, whether in writing, by phone, email or in person to make sure that the union’s political ‘asks’ and ‘concerns’ come direct from members. Peer to peer contact is imperative.
An additional factor is that contact and involvement with members is not simply reserved for election time, that it is part of a continuity approach to political organising. The US unions have built their operation over ten years, not just for Obama. This approach is central to and helps guide all their political work and campaigning. It also has the welcome knock on effect of building union membership and activism.
UK unions such as the GMB and Unite have already picked up on what US comrades have been doing, surveying and writing to members on key concerns both locally and nationally. Usdaw and Unison continue to produce well received targeted campaign materials. But it is not just the Labour party affiliated unions that are getting active – during this year’s European elections PCS ran a ‘Make your vote count campaign’.
In addition, Unite launched its unite4labour campaign at the Labour party conference. The unite4labour website picks up on the approach and resources championed by USW. Union members and activists can register with the site and then log on to make use of campaign materials that can be personalised then printed, as well as contacting and canvassing other union members through a virtual phone bank.
Any public campaign by unions will focus not only union members on workplace issues but also the wider electorate and potential candidates. Unions have the potential to make a major input in terms of organising, particularly if we are to consider that unions here are amongst the biggest voluntary organisations in the country and that the political parties are losing members. Indeed, what some UK unions are presently putting into action, can be seen as simply the start, as we move towards further establishing clear and focused political education programmes to increase voter registration, turnout, awareness and activism.