It?s election day, and a historic time for labor unions to show their might when they can.
And Maryland labor union locals are aiming to do just that this election day.
Union members are using their own vacation time to hit the streets this election day and knock on the doors of their union brothers and sisters, according to local union leaders. Their goal: Get them to the polls.
Fred D. Mason Jr., president of the Annapolis-based Maryland State and District of Columbia AFL-CIO, said more than 130 union members have been knocking on doors and making phone calls to union members every Saturday for the past six weeks.
“We are letting our members know who the union endorses and who the candidates are,” Mason said.
He said that on election day about 1,500 union members will take personal time off work to hit the streets and polling places, including Baltimore City.
“We will be all over the state,” Mason said.
Leaders of Baltimore-based Local 570 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said they too will be out encouraging their members to vote.
The local recently organized bus drivers at a school bus contract company in Baltimore who had complained about overtime without pay.
“We want to get people friendly with our union elected to office,” said Sean Cedino, secretary treasurer of Local 570 of the teamsters union.
Cedino said the union has been out helping candidates with putting up signs as well as holding candidate speaker presentations.
“We have been working quite a bit with the candidates we support,” Cedino said.
Some local labor unions encourage their members to be politically active by contacting their elected officials to voice their legislative concerns, according to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Division 482 which includes Baltimore and Washington.
