The AFL-CIO, devitalized by the defection of several of its largest unions, is seeking new recruits from outside the ranks of organized labor.
Working America, an AFL-CIO-funded grass-roots effort to involve nonunion members in working class issues, has opened a Pittsburgh office at Five Gateway Center, home of the United Steelworkers of America.
The organization will use door-to-door canvassing to enlist voters willing to lobby on raising the minimum wage, protecting health care and Social Security, and related issues.
"We give a voice to people who otherwise don't have the benefit of a union," said Jenn Jannon, 25, field canvass director for the Pittsburgh office.
She hopes to have a staff of 15 by the end of the year.
Working America, founded in August 2003, also has offices in Cleveland; Columbus, Ohio; Cincinnati; Falls Church, Va.; Seattle; and Portland, Ore. It has signed up more than a million members in those cities, or two members for every three doors canvassers knocked on, Jannon said.
Each member provides his or her name, address and e-mail address, giving the organization a data bank to use in elections and campaigns to promote or block legislative proposals.
The effort comes as union membership continues to decline and the AFL-CIO, organized labor's largest political force, has been ravaged by infighting that came to a head at the federation's 50th anniversary convention in Chicago in July.
The Service Employees International Union, the largest AFL-CIO member with 1.8 million members, the 1.3 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters and several other unions split away from the group. The dissidents want to direct more resources to signing up more union members and criticized the AFL-CIO for its political action efforts.
"The issues we work on transcend political parties," said Jannon, a Fairmont, W.Va., native whose resume includes six years with Clean Water Action and campaigning for Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry, Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell and Democrat Joseph Hoeffel, who lost the 2004 U.S. Senate race to Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
While Working America collects dues money in other states, Jannon said canvassers wouldn't be asking for money when they go door-to-door in Pittsburgh. They currently are working in Brookline from about 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., avoiding houses where union members live.
One thing canvassers are asking residents to do is write personal letters to members of Congress opposing privatizing Social Security.
First Published: September 8, 2005, 4:00 a.m.
