Labor in Pennsylvania

Allentown, Pennsylvania

Just across the river from the massive, rusting Bethlehem Steel Works sits a union hall for three United Steelworkers locals. It is the hub of activity for a huge, unprecedented, voter mobilization effort in Lehigh Valley, which is the linchpin of the Kerry campaign's efforts to win Pennsylvania's 21 electoral votes. The saying in this state is "as goes Lehigh Valley so goes Pennsylvania."

On the weekend before Election Day, the union hall was jammed with volunteers, who had come from all around the country to walk precincts in Bethlehem and adjoining Allentown. New Yorkers have been streaming here every weekend for some time, eager to help out in a battleground state just next door.

On Saturday, busloads of members of UNITE-HERE and the teachers' unions pulled in after 9 AM. The local folks have the operation down pat: Volunteers walk in the front door, sign in, grab a donut and coffee, walk down a long hall to the auditorium where they are given a short briefing on the rap, and, then, they are out a side door to be matched up with a local driver who will ferry them around to neighborhoods.

Four days out from Election Day, the task has shifted from trying to persuade undecided voters to an aggressive get-out-the-vote operation. This area is home to lots of union members but also many so-called Reagan Democrats, voters who care about social issues like abortion as much as economics or the war in Iraq.

Then there are tensions gathering around possible dirty tricks as stories filter in that forecast more ugliness. On Sunday the local Allentown ACT (America Coming Together, a 527 working on voter mobilization) office was sabotaged when their power cables were cut. The local fire marshal has launched an investigation. Just recently, a canvasser reported knocking on the door of a registered Democrat, which, when opened, revealed two young boys wearing Bush-Cheney t-shirts. Surprised, she asked for the head of the household who turned out to be an elderly blind woman. The woman gleefully said that she had already voted after she was visited by two men who offered to fill out her absentee ballot and have her sign it--in exchange for t-shirts for her grandchildren.

On Election Day, there will be a small army of union volunteers deployed here: At least 100 vans ready to speed through streets, depositing canvassers to turn out voters or ferrying voters to the polls who have no other mode of transportation. There will be 1,400 volunteers on the streets. John Werkhesier, the head of the Lehigh County labor council, says he has never seen a similar effort. "It's at least ten times the effort," he says. "Normally, we have people available from labor on a here and there basis. This time, we'll have 250 people full-time. We used to do walks through the neighborhood with 150 people and now we've had 700 people every weekend for months."

Ben Waxman, the 25-year-old area coordinator for the national AFL-CIO political department, has been here since January. "The single greatest phenomenon I have witnessed and the one incredible thing that Bush has done, much to his own detriment, has motivated a better part of our nation. We've worked with people from 18 to 68, and they've been phenomenal. My generation is rising to the occasion."

Jonathan Tasini

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