WHAT'S NEXT?
While we celebrate our victory for working families, and focus on rebuilding our economy, please take a moment to channel your energy and enthusiasm and join the Million-Member Mobilization in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.

When Barack Obama is sworn in Jan. 20, 2009, we want to deliver 1 million signatures in support of the Employee Free Choice Act to the president and the new Congress. Our economy will not work for all working families unless we restore workers' freedom to bargain for a better life.

Join us today.

Thank you!

Because of years of work by people of all ages, races, stations and faiths hungry for change, the political pendulum is swinging back toward sanity. It took the inspiration of a rare leader to translate that hunger for change into an election the likes of which we have not seen in our time.

Barack Obama brings new hope to America’s working families, and our increased majority in the U.S. Senate means we can translate that hope into reality. So thank you for your hard work in educating and mobilizing voters. (Click here to read AFL-CIO post-election commentary on our blog.)

Last night was a time to rejoice, but now it is time to get back to work fighting for working families.

We are responsible for holding our elected leaders to the promises they made and providing public support for the tough legislative choices they will make on our behalf. The first challenge for Barack Obama, Joe Biden and the hundreds of great legislators we helped elect is to address the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Hard-working families are losing jobs, homes, health care, retirement savings and hope. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been committed to rescuing Wall Street—but almost nothing has been done to rescue Main Street. People need help, and they need it now.

We need an immediate new recovery plan to jumpstart our economy, including provisions for:

* Restructuring mortgages to keep people in their homes;
* Extending unemployment assistance for jobless workers; and
* Aiding states so they can continue to provide vital public
services

We also desperately need to make job-creating infrastructure investments in schools, roads, bridges and clean renewable energy for sustained economic growth. We must reregulate our financial markets and reform America's broken health care system so no one has to choose between food and medicine or between life-saving treatment and bankruptcy.

These are the building blocks of a sustainable economy. But even with those investments, our economy cannot work for everyone unless we restore worker's freedom to bargain for a better life. To do that, we must enact the Employee Free Choice Act, which will:

* Level the playing field for corporations and workers who want to
form and join unions;
* Strengthen penalties against companies that coerce or intimidate
employees who support the union;
* Establish mediation and binding arbitration when the company and
workers cannot agree on a first contract; and
* Enable employees to form unions when a majority signs
authorization cards.

Instead of respecting workers' free choice about whether to form unions and bargain, corporations have formed multiple front groups to launch a massive campaign to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act. Those groups have pledged to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to attack and smear members of Congress who support the legislation.

Count on this being one of the largest, foulest propaganda campaigns in our history. This fight is their No. 1 priority, and it is ours as well.
We need your support. When Barack Obama is sworn in Jan. 20, 2009, we want to deliver 1 million signatures in support of the Employee Free Choice Act to the president and the new Congress. We need you to join our Million-Member Mobilization today.

America's unions—from the national level down to individual union members—are joining together to overcome the lies and distortions and win prompt passage of the Employee Free Choice Act to restore America's middle class.

Workers who belong to unions earn 30 percent more than nonunion workers, are 59 percent more likely to have employer-provided health coverage and are four times more likely to have pensions. Not surprisingly, more than half of U.S. workers—nearly 60 million—say they would join a union right now if they could.

But not enough workers get the chance to join a union, because today's company-dominated system allows corporations to block workers from deciding for themselves whether to form unions to bargain for a better life. Companies routinely intimidate, harass, coerce and even fire people who try to organize unions. This is an urgent problem for workers, blocking their free will and their ability to improve their economic well-being.

Join the Million-Member Mobilization in support of the Employee Free Choice Act today.

America's entire union movement is committed to passing the Employee Free Choice Act in 2009. We will fight, just like we fought to win this election, to do so. Yes we can, and yes we will!

Thank you again,

John J. Sweeney
AFL-CIO President

P.S. Look at what happened during this election—unity we never witnessed before made historic change possible. We must keep that drive alive.
Start by adding your name to the Million-Member Mobilization in support of the Employee Free Choice Act today .