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'Extraordinary' union vote fuels election results in Michigan

Date Posted: November 24 2006

Union members in political "battleground" states rode the nationwide current toward Democrats in Congress and away from Republicans, a poll conducted on Election Night, Nov. 7 shows.

And in Michigan, union support of Democrats at the top of the ticket became a tidal wave. Citing an EPIC-MRA poll, Michigan AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney said a whopping 82 percent of union members in Michigan voted to re-elect Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, and 81 percent voted to re-elect Sen. Debbie Stabenow.

Gaffney said the poll shows union members made up 22 percent of Michigan's workforce, but represented 28 percent of the total statewide vote on Nov. 7. And that's not even counting union family members, which could have pushed union influence on the vote in Michigan over 40 percent.

"Those are extraordinary numbers," Gaffney said. "But they didn't just happen. A lot of hard work by union members across Michigan made those numbers possible."

The nationwide polling numbers show similar strong numbers for union voting. The poll of 810 union members, by Peter Hart Associates, found that union members in battleground states voted for House Democrats by a 74-26 percent margin. Among all voters in battleground states, the win rate was 55-45 percent for House Democrats. For Senate candidates, union members supported Dems by a similar 73-27 percent.

The trend of union members supporting Democratic candidates has been growing: the survey found that 70 percent of union members supported House Dems in 2004, preceded by 68 percent in 2002.

The top concerns of those votes: the war in Iraq (41 percent), economy and jobs (32 percent), health care/ prescription drugs (26 percent) and Social Security/ retirement (26 percent). Members who voted for Democrats for House seats said their biggest concern about the GOP Congress was they care "more about political power than doing right" (37 percent).

Overall, union households accounted for roughly one out of four U.S. voters.

"We're very proud and excited to see from the numbers that union voters drove a wave that elected a pro-working families majority in the House and in the Senate," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. "The leaders in control of Congress neglected the needs of working Americans while catering to corrupt special interests, and working people said 'no more'."