A Pep Talk on Main Street

by Cynthia McCabe  |  November 04, 2011

AFSCME Sec.-Treas. Lee Saunders encourages volunteers who are working day and night to defeat Issue 2 in Ohio. (Photo by Cynthia McCabe)

NILES, OHIO – When you’ve been knocking on doors and phonebanking for months, fighting for public workers’ rights and your family’s economic stability, you can get a little tuckered out. An encouraging word can keep you going until Election Day.

Volunteers fighting against Issue 2 here got that encouragement this week from the leaders of every Ohio AFSCME affiliate and AFSCME Sec.-Treas. Lee Saunders. AFSCME members joined teachers, firefighters and community supporters filling the union hall on Main Street for yet another night of volunteering to defeat Issue 2.

“This is going to be the vote heard ‘round the world,” Saunders told volunteers. His energy was infectious and volunteers rose to their feet to applaud. “We will send a message to folks who want to attack labor and attack the middle class. We’re going to fight like hell for our country.”

Volunteers phonebank to make sure voters get to the polls to repeal Ohio's anti-worker Senate Bill 5. (Photo by Cynthia McCabe)

AFSCME Council 8 President John Lyall reminded volunteers that they didn’t start this fight. That was Gov. John Kasich, conservative state lawmakers and their corporate backers who pushed the anti-worker Senate Bill 5 (being voted on Tuesday as Issue 2) into law. “But we’re sure as hell going to finish it,” Lyall said.

“All eyes of the nation are watching to see what happens here,” said Chris Mabe, the president of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association (OCSEA/AFSCME Local 11).

And Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE/AFSCME Local 4) President JoAnn Johntony said of voters, “we can inform them, but if they don’t make that effort to go vote, then it’s all for nothing.”

That’s where the assembled volunteers came in. Fired up by their leaders, they headed out armed with address lists for canvassing, or powered up their cell phones to start phonebanking. Some, including Gina Yanigloss, an OAPSE member, were tasked with recruiting more volunteers -- fresh legs for the next week.

“I tell them when I call, ‘This is your job and we can’t count on anyone else,’” Yanigloss said.

Can Ohio workers and their families count on you? Head now to WeAreOhio.com to find out about volunteer opportunities in your area.