Battleground Bulletin - MICHIGAN

TURNOUT WILL BE HIGH ON ELECTION DAY

For those that haven't voted yet, we expect turnout to be high so make your plans for voting. Decide today if you are going before work or after work and make sure you know where your polling place is located. Many states require you to show ID with a current address or a current utility bill or paycheck stub. We track our members' voting participation and know that some of our members don't vote in non-Presidential elections, make sure you are not one of them....VOTE!

It’s finally Election Day! If you haven’t yet voted, vote. If you’re family members haven’t yet voted, make them vote. If your friends, neighbors and union brothers and sisters have not yet voted, get them to the polls!

As they did in 2008, District 4 members will make the difference in many races in the Battleground States of Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan. This is the final edition of Battleground

Bulletin! before the election. As you will see, union forces are mobilizing to stop the momentum of anti-worker candidates and anti-worker messages.

It’s no surprise CWA members are at the heart of this final push across the nation: from California to Texas, Pennsylvania to Missouri and everywhere in between, CWA members are knocking on doors, making phone calls and leafleting worksites on behalf of worker-friendly candidates who care about values important to American families: good jobs, reasonable health care, pension protection and collective bargaining rights.

President Obama says it's the face-to-face, co-worker to co-worker contact "that makes the difference". It’s the value of a co-worker hearing from somebody she trusts, 'Check out this information.' It’s the edge you have when you walk up to a door or make a phone call and say, 'I’m from the union and it matters whether you vote.'

Over the past few days of the campaign, Obama urged the union activists to keep up the pace. "Sign up for phone banks. Pick up a packet and walk the precincts, volunteer to drive people to the polls on Tuesday….Let’s do everything we can."

You have already made a difference. Use the final few election hours to make sure our efforts pay off!

WHERE THE ACTION IS

This election is about jobs, and that's why Labor is backing Virg Bernero for Governor. General Motors Co.'s announcement that it was adding 600 jobs to its downtown Lansing plant to build the new Cadillac ATS shows once again that Bernero, the Lansing Mayor, knows how to bring jobs to the state. "Lansing is already seventh in the state in job growth, and this new development

is a major step toward becoming No. 1," Bernero points out. "As Governor, I'll turn Michigan's economy around just like we've done in Lansing." Meanwhile, District 4 activists are targeting three important Congressional races:

In District 1, Gary McDowell, a state legislator, worked 33 years as a Teamster. He understands what's important to working people, and he'll be great voice for us in Congress. District 7 incumbent Mark Schauer and District 9 incumbent Gary Peters represent crucial seats. If we want to keep a worker-friendly Congress, we have to return these two lawmakers to office.

WORK UNTIL YOU'RE 70?

That's what House Republican Minority Leader John Boehner wants to see. If the GOP takes over the House, Boehner says he wants to raise the Social Security retirement age to 70. That might not seem like such a big deal to a guy like Boehner. The only heavy lifting he does is pick

up a bottle of suntan lotion and a five iron.

But to the millions of seniors in physically demanding job, it's a big deal. New TV ads from Protecting America's Retirees, an independent project of the Alliance for Retired Americans, takes a light-hearted look at the serious subject of forcing seniors to stay on the job until age 70 or older.

The ads are airing in closely contested House races in Ohio, Arizona, Iowa and Pennsylvania.

The ad reaches out to seniors who may be voting for Republicans because they want change:

"You’re hoping things will change?

"Hope you're also planning to stay on the job.

"Because at least one change means seniors will have to work. And work. And keep right on working.

"Yes-that’s right. The Republican leadership wants to raise your retirement age to 70."

The ad shows, among others, a firefighter, construction worker, delivery person and lifeguard struggling on the job in their later years.

JUST THE FACTS, PLEASE

The economy and jobs are the top issues in the Nov. 2 elections. But with all the rhetoric

and hot air filling the airways, it’s hard to get the straight facts.

U.S. unemployment is high. But, at the same time, more private-sector jobs have been

created this year alone than in all eight years of the Bush administration.

And over the past four years, Republicans have voted 11 times to preserve loopholes that encourage American companies to ship jobs overseas.

These facts bear out what AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told the Global Progressive Forum recently:

We in the United States now face an election where we must choose between the humane, progressive, unifying vision of our President, Barack Obama, and the policies that caused this economic crisis, cloaked in the rhetoric of hatred and division.

Here’s another fact: Obama’s economic policies have been a big help for women. A new report by the White House’s National Economic Council, described scores of policies that have promoted women’s economic security, including:

The earned-income tax credit, which significantly benefits working mothers. Work-study money for community college students, 56 percent of whom are female. State aid supporting the jobs of teachers and nurses, who are mostly women. Democratic opposition to privatizing Social Security, of which women make up 57 percent of beneficiaries.

Here are some other key facts to take with you to the voting booth. Citing nonpartisan research and press reports, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi busts several conservative myths in this campaign:

Myth: Spending’s out of control and the deficit’s exploding

Fact: President Bush nearly doubled the national debt and repealed the pay-as-you-go deficit control plan that produced balanced budgets in the 1990s. Independent economists credit the

Democrats’ response to the Bush recession for preventing the loss of 8 million more jobs and stopping unemployment from exceeding 16 percent. They also concluded that without these actions, the U.S. budget deficit would actually be $3 trillion worse over the next three years.

Myth: Taxes have gone up

Fact: Americans are paying the lowest taxes in 60 years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Myth: Government took over health care

Fact: The Affordable Care Act actually builds on our private insurance system. The number of Americans with private health coverage will increase under health reform.

Myth: Government is interfering with private markets and industry

Fact: Wall Street reform essentially returned our financial sector to commonsense rules, like

the ones put in place after the stock market crash of 1929. The auto bailout worked, too. For the first time in five years, all of the Big Three are operating at a profit and are working to repay the government.