http://www.peoplesworld.org/a-peek-at-how-unions-kick-ass-in-an-election/by: John Wojcik October 1 2010
CHICAGO - Regardless of where one stands on the political spectrum, there is wide agreement that the labor movement knows how to "kick ass," when it comes to elections.
It was a sunny afternoon here Sept. 29 when the Peoples World got a chance to see, up front, just one way unions, in the 2010 mid-term elections, are accomplishing what they are famous for.
As thousands here began to head home at the end of their shifts that day, union transit workers, painters, food and commercial workers, chemical workers, steel workers, and communications workers took a detour - to the Painters Hall in the West Loop. There they got on the phones to alert their union brothers and sisters about the elections coming up on Nov. 2.
Derrick Vassel Sr., 44, the UFCW machine shop steward at H.I.G. Chemicals, arrived early, just before 3 p.m., took the top sheet off a thick pile of computer print outs and carried it into one of the private phone booths lining the walls in the two suites used for phone banking. The print outs, compiled by the Chicago Federation of Labor, list the names of every union member registered to vote in the Chicago area.
Vassel explained why he came back that afternoon for his third straight evening on the phones. "My family would not be a middle class family if I did not have a union job," he said. "I earn a living wage and I want to maintain that. The Republicans want to destroy unions and take that away from me."
Somone on the other end picked up after one of Vassel's calls.
FULL story at link.