On June 23, CWA delegates committed their energy and resources and pledged to work "as never before" to elect Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States. 

Senator Obama has made clear his commitment to CWA's four key issues -- the Employee Free Choice Act, universal health care, fair trade and good jobs, and financial security for retirees -- and he has proven his ability to energize millions of people across the country, unite voters across party lines and bring many new people into the political process.

Watch this video of Senator Obama thanking CWA membership for our support at our convention on Monday and send the video to your friends and co-workers.

McCainPedia.org is a wiki, a type of Web site comprised of editable information from many sources, which serves as the Democratic National Committee's repository for all things McCain. The goal of the site is to host thorough, vetted, and comprehensive research and information about Senator John McCain in real time.

According to the site:

In the past, research by candidates and political parties was hidden from the public and couldn't be accessed by voters trying to figure out how they should vote, by activists looking to influence the election, or by bloggers trying to find good research to help write their blogs. With this resource, which will be constantly updated with additional material through the election, we are embracing the idea that opening up our resources is the best way to engage voters and elect a Democrat to the White House.

The main difference between McCainPedia.org and other wiki sites is that it is not open to be edited by the general public. The DNC's Research, Communications, and Internet teams make up the editors for the site and because of this approach, unlike traditional wikis, all of the information posted on the site has been vetted for accuracy, and has been verified to be correct by the DNC.

Check out the site throughout the election to learn everything from the details of the lasted McCain blunder to more information on his dangerous lack of knowledge about the economy.

'The Real McCain 2' would be funny if John McCain weren't running for president. In clip after clip, Senator McCain contradicts himself and the truth. One clip shows him claiming he walked down the streets of Baghdad neighborhoods with no body armor. The next clip shows video of McCain during his supposedly unarmored walk wearing, of course, armor, and details the rest of the security present: more than 100 American soldiers, three black hawk helicopters and two apache gunships overhead.

In another outrageous part of the video, McCain claims he has extensive background and knowledge of the economy -- and then we see him admitting he still needs to be educated on economic issues and lacks economic expertise to delve into George Bush's interest rate cuts.

Here's McCain's pronouncement, made at the same time reports of record-breaking oil prices, rising unemployment rates, and huge stock market losses:

As Tula Connell writes, "it's long past time for such pat pronouncements."

John McCain shouldn't be given a pass for accepting the Bush premises of low taxes on the rich and utter abandonment of a fair playing field for all workers. Those policies haven't worked for the past seven-plus years, and they won't work for four more.

Union membership encompasses just 7.5% of the private sector, but the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is fearful of a potential resurgence in the United States. Now the group, which represents business interests, is opposing a laundry list of bills fluttering about Capitol Hill, which the chamber says would make it easier to organize a union, expand worker benefits at the expense of employers and lift the caps on punitive damages sought by employees in lawsuits.

So, what are they so scared of? Having to finally follow existing law that protects the rights of workers to organize? That would be terrible!

"What's going on on Capitol Hill right now is nothing less than a radical rewrite of our nation's unemployment laws," says Randel Johnson, the chamber's vice president for labor, immigration and employee benefits.

But forget 2008. "We're very concerned about the next four years," Johnson says. The prospect of Democrats controlling Congress and the White House is unsettling for foes of labor expansion.

The presumptive democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama has vowed unwavering support for the Free Choice Act as well as other labor issues like restructuring trade deals to protect workers here and abroad. Of course Sen. John McCain is in favor of anti-union laws and opposes, in lock step with George Bush, the Employee Free Choice Act. 

Teamsters' spokesman Galen Munroe says, "It's pretty much accepted that Americans want change after the Bush administration."

 And that's exactly what they're going to get.

Eighty percent of Americans are sure this country is on the wrong road economically. Sen. John McCain acknowledges this, yet believes it has nothing to do with foreclosures, 4 dollar gas, or the health care crisis; instead he blames Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for their opposition to a widely criticized free trade agreement with Columbia.

Seth Michaels wrote an enlightening article for the AFL-CIO Now blog on the reasons behind McCain's ardent support for the trade agreement.

Maybe McCain is spending too much time listening to the lobbyists who run and fund his campaign -- one top backer actually lobbies for Colombia's government. Clearly, he's not listening to the millions of working families who are unhappy about lost jobs, shuttered factories, foreclosures and rising costs.  

Nor is he thinking about the exploited Colombian workers who face intimidation, threats and even murder if they try to secure their rights at work. Last year, 39 trade unionists were killed in anti-union violence in Colombia, and 24 have been killed already this year -- more than one a week. 


Michaels was echoing the President of AFL-CIO, John Sweeney, in accusing McCain of being out of touch. Sweeney emphasized Columbia's history of human rights abuse.

John McCain glossed over horrific human rights abuses and the deaths of hundreds of Colombian union activists today when he urged Congress to pass the Bush administration's ill-conceived Colombian trade pact. Workers in Colombia are targeted for violence and blocked from joining unions to lift their lives and prevent exploitation, making fair trade impossible. In fact, Colombia remains the most dangerous country in the world to be a union member. The fact that McCain believes not passing Bush's bad trade deal with Colombia is the reason Americans think we're on the wrong track is a measure of how out of touch he's become with working people's concerns. 


McCain is clearly happy following the paths of trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, and the agreements with Peru and Chile straight into Columbia without acknowledging the problems with previous agreements or the issues of the Columbian people, creating an obviously fallible campaign argument in the process.

So, no Mr. Senator, 80 percent of Americans do not think we are on the wrong track because of democratic opposition to the Columbian trade agreement. You could figure it out, Senator McCain, by starting with a good, hard look in the mirror.

CWA District 3 Legislative-Political Coordinator Beverly Hicks said every CWA local union and unions throughout the state got involved and worked together. "It's so important to put people in office who will be accountable and who will support working families and the issues that are so important to us. That's exactly what happened in this election," she said.

Despite what Garry Jordan, president of CWA Local 3517, describes as Republican attempts to distract voters with terrible advertising, the efforts of CWA to keep the focus on the economy, health care, and other concerns for working families proved to be effective.

"We'll do it all over again in November" when Childers must run again, Jordan said, adding that union members were seeing a real change in Mississippi and the opportunity to elect a U.S. Senator and other representatives who would "get people health care, get them workers' rights and the Employee Free Choice Act and stay focused on their issues."

This is just one example of what organized efforts on behalf of working families can achieve. Keeping the focus on what really matters to middle class Americans and not letting up can put good people like Travis Childers in office where he belongs.

Sen. John McCain recently appeared on Live with Regis and Kelly, where he suggested that not only did he want to risk your Social Security benefits by putting them into the stock market, but that he was more concerned with the bottom line of bankers on Wall Street than middle class Americans, who would benefit greatly from such a windfall.

Edward F. Coyle, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans points out that this is an unreasonable thing to ask from seniors, who are already struggling with out-of-control gas and grocery prices, exposing them to unnecessary risk and uncertainty.

“Not only did Senator McCain support privatized Social Security in a March 3 interview with the Wall Street Journal, but in 2006 he voted to shift Social Security’s annual surpluses into a reserve account that would be converted into private accounts. [S. Con. Res., Vote #68, 3/16/06].  Earlier in his Senate career, McCain voted twice to replace Social Security’s guaranteed benefits with income from risk-based private investments. [S. Con. Res., Vote #56, 4/1/98; S. Con. Res., Vote #77, 4/1/98]”

Additionally, in a March 3rd Wall Street Journal article, McCain was revealed to be considering raising the Social Security retirement age to 68 and reducing the cost of living adjustment.

Coyle explains:

“Current –and future – retirees demand the truth about the prospects for their retirement security.  We call upon all in public office to speak clearly about their intentions for Social Security.”

Not all older Americans have the luxury of a $100 million beer fortune to live lavishly off of – McCain needs to start worrying about middle class retired Americans, not banking industry fat-cats.

1. Economic downturn is “psychological.”
Having on multiple occasions admitted his limited understanding of the economy, Senator McCain instead turned armchair psychologist to diagnose the U.S economic slowdown. In April, McCain told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto that “a lot of our problems today, as you know, are psychological.” Apparently, four months of job losses, oil at $120 a barrel, record gas prices at the pump, 47 million uninsured and a devastating home foreclosure crisis are merely figments of Americans’ imaginations.

8. Opposed to SCHIP expansion, McCain speaks at children’s hospital.
Last October, John McCain joined George W. Bush in opposing the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), calling Bush’s veto a “right call by the president.” Of course, that didn’t stop McCain from rolling out his health care proposals last week at Miami Children’s Hospital, a Florida medical institution which last fall publicly supported the S-CHIP expansion he opposed. In a further irony, while McCain decried “new mandates and government regulation,” 9 year-old Jake Bernard who was spotlighted at the event received treatment for his cleft palate thanks to a statute passed by the state of Florida. So much for McCain’s pledge to “work to eliminate the worries over the availability and cost of health care.”

10. “I’m not running on the Bush presidency.”
On April 1, 2008, John McCain offered Americans another April Fool’s joke, proclaiming “I’m not running on the Bush presidency.” McCain might want to check his campaign’s position papers. After all, in his eternal quest for the Republican nomination, McCain has adopted virtually the entire Bush agenda, often reversing long held positions and compromising supposed core principles. From Iraq, tax cuts for the wealthy, broken promises on the deficit to opposition to SCHIP, tax credits for health care, overturning Roe v. Wade and a right-wing Supreme Court, John McCain represents a third Bush term. It’s no wonder Mr. Straight Talk said in February:

“I would be proud to have President Bush campaign with me and support me in any way that he feels is appropriate. And I would appreciate it.”

So would we.

Read the rest of John McCain's top 10 out-of touch moments.

The goal of McCainSource.com is to make sure the public understands that the policies of John McCain are just like the policies George Bush – the same old commitment to endless war, trillions to Iraq, tax cuts for millionaires, no plan for universal health care and no plan for our economy.

Union members have fought hard to win the health care benefits that they have, and now the fight to preserve those benefits has crowded out other issues at the bargaining table. As the country begins to decide how best to improve our nation's health care system, we have an important opportunity to shape the debate by advocating a solution that both levels the playing field for employers that provide benefits and also allows unions to negotiate better wages and benefits. As you review these proposals, keep these goals in mind:

* Preserve quality affordable health care for workers and retirees
* Provide cost relief to employers who provide worker and retiree benefits
* Control costs to keep health care affordable

In order for our nation to achieve these goals, we must elect a president committed to that achieving them. And that means going to the polls with a clear view of where each candidate stands on this critical issue.

Cross-posted on CWA Votes blog

Democratic Presidential Nomination

Clinton  Obama  Edwards  Richardson
   38       24         13           3

Republican Presidential Nomination

Giuliani  Thompson  Romney  McCain
   27          10          14         14


IOWA RESULTS (American Res. Group, November 26th - 29th)

Democratic Presidential Nomination

Obama  Clinton  Edwards  Richardson
   27        25        23            4

Republican Presidential Nomination

Romney  Huckabee  Giuliani  Thompson
   28          27          9            14

Democratic Presidential Nomination

Clinton  Obama  Edwards
   44       23         12

Republican Presidential Nomination

Giuliani  Thompson  McCain  Romney
   33          12          17        8


IOWA RESULTS (Research 2000, November 12th -14th)

Democratic Presidential Nomination

Clinton  Obama  Edwards  Richardson
   27        25        21            10

Republican Presidential Nomination

Romney  Huckabee  Giuliani  Thompson
   27          18          16          10

District 1
1010
1013
1020
1060
1300
1366
1395

District 2
2206
2272
2385

District 3
3150
3290
3301
3412
3790
3865

District 4
4032
4101
4123
4214
4215
4250
4260
4390
4621
4670
4711

District 6
6409

District 7
7009
7109
7205
7206
7290
7790
7990

District 9
9477
9590

District 13
13552

CWA-PPMWS
14307
14348
14406
14413
14517
14725
14752
14836

TNG-CWA
31167
37123

NABET-CWA
58213

IUE-CWA
81380
81382
83265
89111

More than 30,000 votes for presidential choice were cast in the electronic poll. On the question of whether to make an early endorsement, a slight majority of voters made the call for no endorsement.

On the choice of candidates, the three top vote-getters received close margins of support from CWA members. Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama were the top vote getters; the difference between the top two candidates was 206 votes.

"Our union is built on grassroots action and member voice. In communities across the country, CWA members will be raising these critical issues for working families over the coming months, with the goal of electing a president and other leaders who will put in place the policies our nation needs to restore the middle class," Cohen said.

Democratic Presidential Nomination

Clinton  Obama  Edwards
   45       22         12

Republican Presidential Nomination

Giuliani  Thompson  McCain  Romney
   29          19          13        12



IOWA RESULTS (Zogby, November 6th -7th)

Democratic Presidential Nomination

Clinton  Obama  Edwards  Richardson
   28        25        21            9

Republican Presidential Nomination

Romney  Huckabee  Giuliani  Thompson
   31          15          11          10

Democratic Presidential Nomination

Clinton     Obama       Edwards
  47           19               12

Republican Presidential Nomination

Giuliani       Thompson          McCain            Romney
   21               19                  14                   12



IOWA RESULTS (Rasmussen, October 10-14)

Democratic Presidential Nomination

Clinton       Edwards       Obama
  33              22              21

Republican Presidential Nomination

Romney       Thompson        Huckabee        Giuliani
   25                19                 18                13
 

This is the blog, where you can find the latest happenings with the 2008 election. Stay up to date on the issues that matter most to union workers, find out how CWA members are promoting these issues, and get the latest on the candidates' positions.

For information on our top issues and the Presidential candidates themselves, our Issues pages have what you're looking for. The On the Issues page organizes candidates' thoughts on health care, good jobs, and the Employee Free Choice Act. The Candidates page lists presidential contenders along with their thoughts on the big three issues. Some candidates have even posted special video messages for CWA members.

Coming up empty-handed on an issue search? Pose your question to the contender of your choice on the Ask the Candidates page. CWA delivers all questions submitted on this page to the appropriate campaign offices.

You can also share your opinions by taking our 2008 e-Poll. Here you can tell us which candidate you support and why, or if you're undecided, why you haven't chosen a candidate yet. The results of this poll will be used to help our Executive Board decide which candidate - if any - will be endorsed by CWA. We want all of our members to have a say in our endorsement, so please send us your input!

If you want to be more involved with CWA Votes, sign up for our email updates using the form along the right side of the page. We'll keep you informed about the latest developments in the campaign and new ways you can help. For those of you more interested in online outreach, Working People's Voices is another great way to become a member of the CWA Votes team and spread the word about issues that matter to union members.

Thanks for stopping by CWA Votes, and be sure to come back again for everything CWA members need to know about the 2008 elections.

Speed Matters, CWA's project dedicated to expanding and accelerating the build out of high-speed internet access, was the topic of the day. Members and retirees worked the crowd, spreading the word about why the presidential candidates need to address our country's growing divide between those who have access to high-speed internet connections and those who do not.

Iowans understand this problem. Iowa is a rural state, and Americans living in rural areas are among those most often left behind. Eileen, an at-home accountant from Runnells, Iowa, knows firsthand the disadvantages of living in a community without high-speed internet:

"There are programs I try to download or update for my computer, and I cannot download a lot of updates because the connection doesn't stay strong enough… I don't feel as though it's right for other people to have [high-speed internet] services provided or available to them just because they live in a different area."

Check out what else Eileen had to say by watching her video. And learn more about CWA's Speed Matters project at www.speedmatters.org.

"This is the beginning of the end of the reign of the rich and powerful in Kentucky, because it is the beginning of the end for Ernie Fletcher."

At the core of the new deal is the transfer of retiree health-care payments from GM to the UAW. GM will pay an estimated $35 billion into a trust designed to appreciate in value and pay health-care benefits for retired workers for at least the next 80 years, the union estimated. In return, GM is able to unload a $51 billion burden in retiree health-care obligations from its books, enabling the troubled company to borrow money more easily and move more nimbly against competitors. GM's health-care liability is more than twice the company's $21 billion market capitalization.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said he is firmly convinced that the new approach is in the best interest of the union's membership. The new trust, funded by GM initially, will be managed by the union and will be used to pay retiree health benefits. Now UAW is working to get agreements, patterned after the agreement with GM, with Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Co.

But is the UAW-GM deal really a good model for future negotiations? Although workers got better job security through GM pledges to undertake new projects in the U.S., the agreements allows GM to shirk its future health care obligations for retirees by transferring the benefits to a union-managed trust. Moreover, the UAW won't be able to negotiate benefits for future retirees. The fact that this deal was necessary shows just how troubled our nation's health and retirement benefits system is.

Check out what the 2008 Presidential candidates told us about their plans to fix our health care system by clicking here.