CWA 1180 - Political Action

Dems sweep into Congress with union help
Six states boost the minimum wage

November 2006

The Democrats swept into Congress Tuesday's elections, as voters rejected the Republican leadership's handling of the Iraq war, the economy, and government corruption. As final tallies were counted on Thursday in one tight Senate race and 10 tight House races, the Democrats appeared to have gained six seats in the U.S. Senate, enough for a bare majority, and at least 28 seats in the House.

According to a poll commissioned by the AFL-CIO, union members favored Democratic candidates by 74 percent (a 3-to-1 margin), four points higher than 2004 and six points higher than 2002. Union members cited the war, the economy, health care, and Social Security as top concerns and expressed deep disapproval of President Bush's leadership. Union families made up around one quarter of all Democratic votes, owing to massive union get-out-the-vote operations. The AFL-CIO estimates that unions made 30 million phone calls to union voters and knocked on the doors of 8.25 million more.

Nine out of ten union members surveyed said that the new Democratic majority should make it their priority to protect workers when their employers declare bankruptcy, require Medicare to negotiate price breaks on prescription drugs, reform exploitative trade agreements, tackle the health care crisis, protect workers' right to join unions, and raise the minimum wage.

Nancy Pelosi, set to become the new Speaker of the House, has promised that two of these items—federal minimum wage hike and legislation allowing the government to negotiate price breaks on Medicare drugs—will be at the top of the Democrats' agenda during their first 100 hours in the majority come January.

Minimum wage measures pass

Voters in six states voted to approve ballot measures raising their minimum wage above the federally mandated $5.15 per hour, meaning such measures passed in every state where they were on the ballot.

The yes vote was as high as 76 percent in Missouri, where it may have helped draw votes for Democrat Claire McCaskill, a supporter of the wage hike, who won a very tight Senate race against Republican incumbent Jim Talent, who took no position on the ballot measure. Even in Colorado, where business groups ran an aggressive opposition campaign, a measure to raise the minimum wage to $6.85 passed with 53 percent of the vote. The AFL-CIO, along with such community organizations as ACORN, led the petition drives to get these measures on state ballots. The measures index the minimum wage to inflation, so it will continue to rise along with the cost of living.

Gains at the state level

Democrats also gained at teh state level, where they now control the governor's mansion and the legislature in 15 states, up from eight before Tuesday. Republicans control 10 states, down from 12. The other states are divided. Democrats now control more state chambers than at any time since 1994.

Democrats also gained a majority of governors' offices for the first time in 12 years, with wins in Massachusetts, Ohio, New York, Arkansas, Colorado and Maryland.

Working Families Party edged out

The Working Families party, with the help of unions such as Local 1180, won a record percentage of the vote on their Row E ballot line. But they didn't quite reach their goal of edging out the Conservative Party in vote totals, allowing them to move up on the ballot from Row E to Row D. So it will be WF Row E in 2008.

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