Related Articles

International Secretary-Treasurer Edwin D. Hill's column as reprinted from the December 1998 IBEW Journal

We Voted

In the end, turnout was the critical factor. The 1998 elections in the United States could have been a disaster for working people. All the experts predicted a low turnout and a strong reaction among energized right-wingers seeking to cash in on President Clinton’s troubles.

Instead, the extreme right-wing agenda took a hit. Moderate candidates from both parties scored big wins, especially in the South and Midwest. Candidates friendly to labor did very well in those races that were hotly contested in a year when most incumbents cruised to re-election. For 50 years, the party that held the White House suffered losses of seats in the House of Representatives and Senate in the mid-term elections. This year, the Democrats actually gained five seats in the House while losing no net seats in the Senate.

Why did this happen? It happened because voters from union households numbered 22 percent of all voters. In specific states, the numbers were much higher. Contrast that to 1994. That year, when the Republicans captured the House and Senate, union voters made up only 14 percent of those who voted. Keep in mind that we are not talking about percentage of all eligible voters; these numbers represent the percentage of those who showed up at the polls.

As President Barry and I noted in previous issues of the Journal, when working people vote, good things happen. Our members need only the facts and the encouragement to use their precious right to vote, the cornerstone of democracy. The thrust of our Political/Legislative Conference and all our materials this year was not on candidates or even issues. We emphasized the need for every IBEWfamily to turn out and vote.

I find it especially gratifying that labor turnout was high in a year when we saw just how fragile our rights can be. This was the year when extreme elements of the right-wing backed a nationwide campaign to prohibit the use of union dues for "political purposes," broadly defined as any union effort to educate and mobilize voters or lobby on issues of importance to working people. This so-called "paycheck protection" movement was stopped cold in its tracks in California and numerous other states. The final blow came in Oregon in November when voters in that state rejected a paycheck deception ballot measure.

Just how important were this year’s elections? With a slim, six-vote majority, House Speaker Newt Gingrich has virtually no wiggle room to enact an anti-worker agenda. We will no longer need to rely so heavily on President Clinton’s veto pen to protect us from assaults on OSHA, national right-to-work, a return to company unions, or attacks on wage and hour laws. In the days following the elections, Speaker Gingrich admitted publicly that he had no idea how to proceed with the new make-up of the House. In the Senate, labor’s allies can continue to mount effective opposition to anti-worker bills. More important, we have a solid base with which to defend Social Security, fight for health care reform, and protect, and someday expand, the right to organize.

The results also show that the concerns of working families are not "special interest" issues. The aspirations of working people for an opportunity to share in America’s prosperity and receive a fair wage for their labor is a mainstream issue, and we must never again let it be marginalized. Let’s keep up the good work that we started in 1998 when we rediscovered our grassroots activist roots. IBEW members throughout the United States and Canada have the power to sway the public debate on critical issues. Let’s make voter turnout our major priority in every election in our nations in the new century.