From education and health care to jobs and the economy, the issues that truly matter to working families are front and center in the upcoming national and state elections.

With Democrats and Republicans pushing their visions of change for the next four years, the candidates who walk away winners will profoundly impact working-family issues for years to come.

That hasn’t gone unnoticed by UUPers, who have stepped up by the dozens to promote pro-education and pro-labor candidates. With so much at stake in the Nov. 4 election, UUPers have joined thousands of AFL-CIO, AFT and NYSUT members in an array of initiatives to get people to the voting booth and to cast their ballots for union-backed candidates.

Activists have been aggressive on SUNY campuses statewide, signing up thousands of new college-aged voters through a get-out-the-vote registration drive sponsored by UUP, NYSUT, the New York State Public Interest Research Group, the SUNY Student Assembly, and Rock the Vote.

Members have urged friends and family to vote, and wore out shoe leather knocking on doors to spread the word about the candidates they support.

“The children whom we are educating today will be most affected by the next president’s policies,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “And Americans’ well-being will depend on how successful we are in preparing them to be wise stewards of our future.”

“Our members are well aware of the importance of this election,” said UUP President Phillip Smith. “They know it is imperative that they carry the messages of pro-union candidates to the masses and they are walking that walk.”

UUP member John Schumacher walked the walk — in a very literal way — on a bus trip to Concord, N.H., arranged by NYSUT in early October. There, he joined dozens of NYSUT, AFT and AFL-CIO volunteers, who went door-to-door to speak with union voters about the Bush Administration’s failures over the last eight years and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama’s plan for change.

Obama is the union-endorsed candidate for president. He faces Republican Sen. John McCain in the presidential race.

Schumacher, president of the System Administration Chapter of UUP, said he’s a strong Obama supporter and volunteered to make the trip because he wanted to do more than just give dollars to the cause. He volunteered on U.S. Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-20th District) campaign in 2005.

“I’m pretty confident New York is going to go for Obama, so I wanted to help out in places where the contest was close,” said Schumacher. “I give credit to NYSUT and UUP for putting out the call. I did what I felt I could do.”

That’s what UUPers across the state have been doing since September. UUP members — like those from Stony Brook, Stony Brook HSC and Old Westbury — have volunteered to work on NYSUT phone banks during October. Members of the Upstate Medical University Chapter manned Syracuse-area phone banks in late October.

National initiatives

The AFL-CIO is hoping to reach as many as 13 million voters with its outreach initiatives, which include amassing thousands of volunteers to campaign in key election states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Hampshire, from September through Election Day. The union in the final days before the election is sending out informational mailings, distributing leaflets and making thousands of phone calls for Obama and other union-endorsed candidates in Senate and House races.

“McCain’s record is one of the most anti-worker in Washington,” said

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. “Trying to cover that up with new rhetoric is an insult to our country’s hard working families who have struggled mightily against the policies he has championed throughout his career.”

The AFT’s Weingarten said there is no sitting on the fence when it comes to Obama and McCain.

“The AFT and its more than 1.4 million members endorsed Barack Obama because the differences between Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain couldn’t be clearer,” she said.

For more information on the candidates, go to www.aft.org or check out www.procon.com for a look at controversial issues in a simple, nonpartisan, “pro-and-con” format.

— Michael Lisi