November 4, 2008

Mark this down as a truly historic day for our country, for California and for our union. Electing Barack Obama the fi rst African-American president of the United States brings an exciting and hopeful future for generations to come.

“With a stronger progressive majority in Congress and a pro-worker, pro-healthcare president, we now have the opportunity to achieve so much for our members and for those we care for,” reacted UHW Pres. Sal Rosselli. “With hard work, we can accomplish meaningful healthcare reform, protections for workers to freely form a union without interference and so much more.”

What made Tuesday, Nov. 4 so incredible, too, was the hard work of our members and our staff that made victory possible in so many critical elections, observed Rosselli. “We succeeded despite the unprecedented attacks from SEIU and still executed highly eff ective strikes at Daughters of Charity and Sutter Health. Simply amazing.”

Here are some highlights regarding our UHW involvement.

In the critical last few weekends of the campaign, UHW members and staff mobilized more than 300 people to travel to Nevada to knock on doors and get out the vote in support of Barack Obama. Obama won Nevada. UHW had more than 25 members and staff full-time on the ground in New Mexico. Obama won New Mexico.

UHW volunteers made more than 100,000 phone calls from UHW offi ces throughout the state to voters in Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Virginia and Florida. Obama won all these states.

UHW put in hundreds and hundreds of volunteer and lost-time hours calling from the LA Federation of Labor to union households across the country to support Obama. Obama carried labor decisively.

Voter discontent with the current state of aff airs fueled a record turnout across the country, and the Obama tide carried over to Congressional races, where victory by union-endorsed candidates translated into big gains for progressives in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.

Meanwhile, a big shout out to UHW San Diego political dept. staff er Richard Barrera, who, with 215,000 votes, won a seat on the local school board. Congratulations Richard!

To all who pitched in — collectively giving thousands of hours to secure victory in this historic election season — congratulations and great work.