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Public
Employee Press Political Action
2009 Yes We Did!
By
DIANE S. WILLIAMS
Celebrating the historic election of Barack Obama
with a resounding Yes We Did! the DC 37 Political Action and Legislation
Dept. honored 79 volunteers Dec. 5 at its annual holiday party.
This
time we did it and we did it big! The Green Machine helped make President-elect
Obamas landslide victory possible, said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian
Roberts. We are expecting big things from our new president and from our
friends in Albany, like Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver.
With a backdrop
of the White House at center stage, hundreds of union activists joined Roberts,
Political Action Chair Lenny Allen, who is also president of Local 2021, and Political
Director Wanda Williams to celebrate taking back the White House for working families.
The union leaders thanked volunteers DC 37 staff, members and retirees
who spent countless hours making calls from phone banks, knocking on doors,
registering voters at worksites and protecting voters rights as part of
AFSCMEs Get Out the Vote campaign. Democrats won control of the U.S. Senate
and the House of Representatives as well as the White House.
Enthusiasm for Obama
moved hundreds from DC 37 to join AFSCMEs grassroots campaign to mobilize
40,000 volunteers and reclaim the White House. Last fall, a dozen lawyers from
the unions Municipal Employees Legal Services program and numerous staff,
using their own leave time, and member volunteers traveled to the battleground
states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Nevada to register new voters and campaign
for Obama in the final days before the general election.
The DC 37
Political Action and Legislation Dept. acknowledged their contributions and honored
its own Eren Isbilir, who manages the union phone banks, as Employee of the Year.
PAL
also gave Retiree Sarah Francis the DC 37 Community Service Award for her 50 years
as a union activist and volunteer.
These are tough times, but this
election has us proud, excited and hopeful about the future, Roberts told
the volunteers. We could not have done it without you. | |