Labor Launches Social Networking Tool To Get Out the Vote in November

Workers’ Voice, the political action arm of the AFL-CIO, has introduced a new online tool called “Friends and Neighbors” to activate and energize working families around political campaigns, legislative issues and holding elected officials accountable.

Friends and Neighbors is both a phone-banking and e-mailing tool that works best when you sign-in using Facebook. With your permission, the tool will match your Facebook friends with voter registration records, and create a call-list for you to contact friends and neighbors to talk about what’s at stake in the 2012 elections. The tool provides a sample script for talking about the election, and allows you to record responses that can be used to help turn out the vote in November. If you don’t have a Facebook account, you can still use Friends and Neighbors by registering with the Friends and Neighbors website.

“For too long our political process has been dominated by too much money, and too much power, concentrated in the hands of too few,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “That is why Workers’ Voice was created — to build an independent voice for the working and middle class who are the 99%.”

The APWU is encouraging members and activists to get involved and use the new tool. “Our future depends on our ability to change our nation’s politics,” said APWU President Cliff Guffey.

“With the Postal Service in the grips of a congressionally-manufactured financial crisis and the country struggling to overcome the Great Recession, APWU members must become soldiers in the battle of the political future of our country,” Guffey said.

A video about how “Friends and Neighbors” works can be seen at www.aflcio.org/fandemo.