Wisconsin State AFL-CIO Blog

Early Voting, Volunteer, and Tonight's Labor for Harris Zoom

Early voting has begun for the August 13 partisan primary election and continues until August 11 in some locations. Check with your municipal clerk for early vote times and locations.

Along with state, federal, and local primaries, there will be two important statewide constitutional amendment questions on the ballot. The referenda (Question 1 and Question 2) seek to change our Wisconsin state constitution, specifically how Governor Evers can spend federal funds. If passed, the constitutional changes would make it harder for Wisconsin to efficiently and effectively use federal funding in times of emergency and beyond.

The Wisconsin AFL-CIO recommends union members Vote NO on both statewide referendum questions.

Can you help us educate voters about the referendum questions and turn out the vote for the August 13 primary election. Click here to join our Labor Votes political education and mobilization campaign.

With less than 100 days until voters decide on our next President, it’s a full on sprint to the November 5 elections.

Join labor leaders and workers tonight for an exciting Zoom call discussing what’s next for Labor for Harris 2024. Sign up at the Zoom link to get the info for the call.

Zoom link: https://go.aflcio.org/labor4harriscall

 

With Vice President Kamala Harris as our endorsed candidate for President, union members are fired up and ready to turn out the vote for working people, our unions and our contracts this November.

We will be making phone calls, writing letters, sending texts, knocking on doors, rallying with our coworkers and more between now and election. There’s a variety of ways to get involved as we mobilize union workers to the polls.

Join us at wisaflcio.org/mobilize.

VP Harris in Wisconsin!

Following a unanimous AFL-CIO endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris for president on Monday, Wisconsin union members are excited to welcome Vice President Kamala Harris back to Wisconsin.

Vice President Harris visited West Allis Central High School today for her first campaign appearance as a presidential candidate where she discussed her plans for a pro-worker economy where working people can get ahead. Today’s visit is Harris’ fifth to Wisconsin this year and her ninth visit to the state since taking office.  

Vice President Harris has been a true partner in leading the most pro-union administration in history. As Chair of the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Worker Empowerment, Kamala Harris is working to advance new organizing and support strong unions. She played a critical role in rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, investing in good-paying union jobs, bringing manufacturing back to America, lowering prescription drug costs and raising wages. In her capacity as Vice President, Harris cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to pass the American Rescue Plan Act, saving pensions for more than one million workers.

With President Harris, we can build on the legacy of the Biden-Harris administration to create good union jobs, provide meaningful economic opportunity to workers, and make our economy work for all of us.

United, together, Wisconsin workers are ready to defeat Donald Trump, J.D. Vance and their devastating anti-worker Project 2025 agenda in November. Sign up today to volunteer with our Labor Votes 2024 political education and mobilization program at wisaflcio.org/mobilize.

AFL-CIO Unanimously Endorses Kamala Harris for President

Following a vote of its Executive Council, which represents 60 unions and 12.5 million workers, today the AFL-CIO unanimously endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president in the 2024 election.

“From day one, Vice President Kamala Harris has been a true partner in leading the most pro-labor administration in history,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “At every step in her distinguished career in public office, she’s proven herself a principled and tenacious fighter for working people and a visionary leader we can count on. From taking on Wall Street and corporate greed to leading efforts to expand affordable child care and support vulnerable workers, she’s shown time and again that she’s on our side. With Kamala Harris in the White House, together we’ll continue to build on the powerful legacy of the Biden-Harris administration to create good union jobs, grow the labor movement and make our economy work for all of us.”

As vice president, Harris:

• Played a critical role in rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, investing in good-paying union jobs, bringing manufacturing back to America, lowering prescription drug costs and raising wages
• Saved the pensions of more than 1 million union workers and retirees
• Led the administration’s efforts to increase access to affordable child care and expand the child tax credit
• Championed worker organizing and chaired the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, where she championed for new worker organizing and training to create pathways to good union jobs
• Stood with striking writers

Other highlights of Harris’ record in support of workers include the following:

• As a U.S. senator, she fought to expand labor protections and fair wages for agricultural and domestic workers and walked the picket line with International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) workers. She was a vigorous advocate for workers’ freedom to form or join a union, including strongly supporting the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act to reform broken labor legislation that stacks the deck against workers.
• As attorney general of California, she cracked down on corporate greed, took on the big banks after the 2008 financial crisis to deliver relief for struggling homeowners and protected the most vulnerable workers by tackling wage theft and other corporate crimes.

“The AFL-CIO is proud of our early and steadfast support for the Biden-Harris administration, and now we’ll ratchet up our mass mobilization of union workers to elect Vice President Harris as president,” Shuler continued. “Like Harris, the labor movement doesn’t back down—and we’ll never shy away from a tough fight when the future of workers and unions is on the line. Together, we will defeat Donald Trump, J.D. Vance and their devastating anti-worker Project 2025 agenda in November.”

 

Vote NO: August 13 constitutional amendments

On Tuesday, August 13, Wisconsin will hold its partisan primary election. On the ballot are two statewide referendum questions that seek to change our Wisconsin state constitution, specifically how Governor Evers can spend federal funds.

The Wisconsin AFL-CIO recommends union members Vote NO on both statewide referendum questions.

Question 1 and Question 2 on the August 13 ballot work together to alter our constitution to give the state legislature more control in how Governor Evers allocates federal funds. The questions read as follows:

Question 1: "Delegation of appropriation power. Shall section 35 (1) of article IV of the constitution be created to provide that the legislature may not delegate its sole power to determine how moneys shall be appropriated?"

Question 2: "Allocation of federal moneys. Shall section 35 (2) of article IV of the constitution be created to prohibit the governor from allocating any federal moneys the governor accepts on behalf of the state without the approval of the legislature by joint resolution or as provided by legislative rule?"

If passed, the August 13 constitutional amendments would make it harder for Wisconsin to efficiently and effectively use federal funding in times of emergency and beyond. In Wisconsin, we expect and need our government to be able to move quickly to get aid into Wisconsin communities, especially in times of natural disaster or emergency.

We know the vital importance of getting needed resources into local communities quickly and efficiently. These needless constitutional amendments would make that more difficult. We urge you to Vote NO on both August 13 statewide constitutional amendment questions.

Project 2025

The late American author and activist Maya Angelou used to say that when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. A group of former senior Trump administration officials have done just that in a nearly 900-page policy document called Project 2025. The project is funded by the conservative Heritage Foundation, a sponsor of next week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

The document is an alarming roadmap of what to expect in a second Trump administration. It is made up of policy contributions from over 100 like-minded organizations, including Young America’s Foundation headed by Scott Walker. While Donald Trump has denied any formal involvement, the authors are a who’s who list of former and, if elected, future Trump administration officials.

What does Project 2025 propose? Greatly expanding the power of the president; replacing thousands of civil servants with Trump loyalists, and implementing an expansive anti-union agenda. Significantly for America’s workers, this includes changing federal rules to allow employers to avoid paying overtime and kneecapping the National Labor Relations Board.

Led by Biden administration appointees, the NLRB has overseen union elections that have resulted in a 70 percent worker victory rate, the highest in the past 15 years. This is the result of the NLRB simply serving its mandated function: to act as the impartial umpire in contests between employers and workers who want to organize a union. Recent history shows clearly that when laws preventing anti-union employers from interfering with organizing are actually enforced, there are more wins for workers.

Little wonder then, that Project 2025 offers a playbook on how to cripple the NLRB’s enforcement capacity, beginning with the firing “on Day One” of NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. General Council Abruzzo has demonstrated her commitment to going after companies that violate workers’ rights. In the anti-worker world envisioned by Project 2025, that makes her unfit to serve.

The resurgence of union organizing in our nation has been greatly assisted by the Biden administration’s strong belief that unions are essential to American prosperity. That’s why the AFL-CIO has proudly endorsed President Biden.

In a campaign that has focused on personalities, it is more important than ever to look at policies. With Project 2025, Donald Trump has shown us who he is. We should believe him. His extreme vision of an America where the law of the land is whatever the president says it is, where hard-won workers’ rights are stripped away with no recourse, is a dark future that must not come to pass. Now is the time for our union movement to stand in solidarity against it.