A Guide to Action: Sending Our Message to Lawmakers and Politicians

April 26, 2011

When Republican lawmakers declared full-scale war on working people and our unions just a few months ago, you can bet that many of them never expected the backlash that it has generated. Angry working people -- and many UE members among them -- have been pushing back against these outrageous attacks in all 50 states, something we have never seen before in our lifetimes. As this battle has unfolded, many elected Democrats have come to our defense. Some -- like the 14 state Senate members in Wisconsin who had to leave the state for weeks in order to block the attacks led by Republican Governor Scott Walker -- have distinguished themselves and earned our thanks. But too many elected Democrats -- particularly at the national and Congressional level -- have been missing-in-action during this crisis. Democrats frequently assume that working people and unions will support them -- in many parts of the country they could not exist without the support of organized labor -- so we have every expectation that in today's crisis we should be able to count on these lawmakers without having to hound them or go looking for them.

But no matter where your lawmakers have stood during the past several months, it's time for all of us to send them our message as UE members. For those with Republican lawmakers, it's a simple message. It's time for us to inform these politicians that we resent their disgraceful attacks on working people, and that we intend to remember at the ballot box -- or in the many recall and referendum movements now underway. Their viscious campaign of attack on working people, our pensions, our health care plans, our right to earn a decent living, and our right to belong to a union cannot be explained away. This entire attack has been organized and funded by corporate America, and then launched through the combined machinery of Republican lawmakers, their many front groups, and a big business news media which they almost totally control. For those elected Republcans who may try to claim that I don't agree with my party on this, etc. we should kindly ask them when it is they will be resigning from such an anti-worker oganization then.

For those UE members with Democrats elected to represent them, the message is equally simple. if your lawmaker has made a real effort to defend working people, speak out against the massive disinformation spread by the media, and intends to support workers even more vigorously going forward, thank them sincerely and compare notes for the coming battles.For those Democrats who have been absent, in hiding, AWOL, or doing the bare minimum during the recent attacks they
should be told in no uncertain terms that we do not accept this. We expect these politicians to either begin to defend working people from this all-out attack, or we will likewise find a suitable replacement for them at election time. Everything we have as working people is under attack; there can be no room for Democrats who expect working people to support them but who are nowhere to be found while the battle rages all around.

Sending our message to lawmakers is absolutely required in the coming weeks and months. To do this - or to do it again -- try some of these suggestions;

  • GET ORGANIZED First, make sure you -- and your co-workers -- know who your lawmakers are, and how to contact them. There's no reason to guess -- or not know -- and finding out is easy. Use the Be Heard section of the UE web page. By zip code you'll find out the name of your lawmaker, their office address, phone number, and other contact info. Once this is done all you have to do is to decide how you intend to contact them and what you plan to say.
  • MAKE PHONE CALLS Phone calls to lawmakers' officesare an effective tactic if done properly. In all likelihood you will leave a message with the staff member, but once in a while you will get to speak to the lawmaker in-person. Just get organized a little bit before you call; make sure you have a brief one or two sentence message which the staffer can jot down, and then be prepared to give them your home mailing adress, your phone, and your e-mail adress if you have one. Ask to be sent a follow-up reply to your message. Don't argue or blow your stack, no matter how tempting it may be. Pour any frustrations you may have into recruiting additional callers to the same office.
  • GROUP PHONE-INS If you can make a phone call yourself, then organize a break room call-in day at your workplace. Cell phones enable you to do this from anywhere. Do it yourself to demonstrate, so that first-timers can see how easy and simple it is. Just make sure they are calling the correct lawmaker. Since folks live all over the place these days it's rare to have everyone living in the same legislativedistricts, especially at the state level.
  • QUICK PETITION AND A VISIT Do a quick petition on this issue and make a union project out of it. Then recruit some volunteers to go deliver it in-person after work. Most state lawmakers will have offices within easy reach, and you can bet that a delegation delivering a petition signed by constituents will get noticed.
  • GIVE THEM AN EXPANDED VISIT IF NEEDED If you find that your lawmaker is particularly anti-worker -- as most Republicans and some Democrats have shown themselves to be during he current battles -- organize a picket line at their office and invite the media to cover it. Contact a few other unions and there's no doubt that you'll have a crowd in no time exposing your anti-worker politician. If these folks want to support outrageous things like attacking public employees, banning unions, shifting huge health care costs onto the backs of workers and retirees, slashing wages and ending real pension plans, they need to be exposed.
  • ASK THE LAWMAKER TO VISIT YOUR WORKPLACE For those elected leaders who may benefit from a visit to your workplace, invite them. Many will jump at the chance. We have found over the years that having lawmakers come to your office, factory, or workplace is one of the best ways to show them what we really face today on the frontlines. A workplace visit today will expose any politician to the fact that the media smear campaign against working people is just that; a smear job to provide public relations cover for today's corporate and Republican attack. Keep this independent from the boss, however. We want the visit to be our chance to talk to lawmakers without the employer being in complete control or setting the agenda. This will enable larger numbers of UE members to meet the guest, ask questions, and make their opinions known.
SEND E-MAILS IF YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING ELSE

Last, send e-mails if you can't do anything else, or if that's all you can accomplish in your particular circumstances. Lawmakers are inundated with e-mails today, so many in fact that their usefulness as an actual measure of how constituents feel on a topic is severely diminished. But, they are better than nothing and some folks may not have a choice.

Take your pick; but do something! Contact your UE Regional office, staff member, or the UE Washington Office at uewashingtonoffice(at)gmail.com or 703-299-5120 for further information or with questions on how to get our message out to lawmakers and politicians.