2000 in 2000

Across the country, thousands of union members are on the ballot.

ln January 1999, Melany Barnes was sworn in to the first elected office she has ever held - representative in the Kansas state legislature. It didn’t take long for one of the charter members of the AFL-CIO’s 2000 in 2000 initiative to make an impact. T he SEIU Local 513 member introduced bills calling for pay equity, collective bargaining for public employees and stronger legal rights for workers in workers’ compensation cases.

That’s what happens when union members hold public office. For years, bankers, lawyers and business executives have dominated politics and held the power of elected office, The AFL-CIO's 2000 in 2000 initiative aims to balance that power and strengthen the voice of working families in government by identifying and recruiting 2,000 union members to run for office by the 2000 election cycle. As of February 2000, more than 1,971 2000 in 2000 candidates have been identified.

“To make sure working families are heard around the country will require changes at all levels of government, and one of the best ways to do that is to have union members run for office,” says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

“The most important thing,” says Tony Hill, a Longshoremen Local 1408 member, Florida AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer and state representative, “is being at the table. "
In January 2000, Hill used that seat at the table t o help stage a 24-hour sit-in at the office of the state’s lieutenant governor to protest GOP Gov. Jeb Bush’s executive order to scrap Florida’s affirmative actions laws. Bush agreed to delay the order and hearings were scheduled.

On a local level, "One human being on a city council can make a world of difference in a city. People listen to you, " says UAW member Shirley Underwood, Underwood has made a difference on the Southgate, Mich., council by spearheading drives that passed resolutions backing locked-out Detroit News and Free Press workers and Steelworkers in their fight to curb foreign steel dumping.

The 1998 elections set the groundwork for 2000 i n 2000 and show that the union members who hit the 2000 campaign trail can win. In 1998, the AFL-CIO identified and tracked 626 union member-candidates; of those, 420 won, with some incredible success. In Nevada, 15 of 16 union members running for state legislative seats won; 28 of 30 Rhode Island union member-candidates won and in Maryland, all 20 union member-candidates were elected.

In the November 1999 off-year elections, the number of 2000 in 2000 successes grew:

• In Ohio, 21 of 30 union member-candidates endorsed by the Cleveland AFL-CIO Federation of Labor Were elected to office, including candidates for mayor, city council, clerk of courts and school board Nine Cincinnati union members were elected, including AFTRA member Charlie Luken, who became the city’s mayor, A total of 49 Ohio union members were elected to public office.
• In Connecticut, SEIU member Jim DellaVolpe defeated the incumbent mayor of Ansonia. The city of Berlin elected a slate of five union members to the city council and Hartford voters sent two union members to the city council. A total of 46 union members were elected to public office around the state.
• In Indiana, 30 members from 15 unions were elected to office, including seats on city council and school boards and mayoral slots.
• In New York, 48 union members were elected from around the state to city and county councils, county clerk and school board seats.
• In Washington, three union members endorsed by the King County Labor Council were elected to seats on the city council and the position of fire commissioner.