Frank Mathews, administrative director of Communications Workers of America (CWA) District 4, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to react to the Nov. 3 election results across Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. He also outlined labor’s agenda for the next two years and remembered former CWA and AFL-CIO leader Barbara Easterling.
Frank Mathews, administrative director of CWA District 4, called election night a great night for working families, for labor and for all Americans. The results felt like validation of what labor has been saying for at least 15 years, he said. As results came in from all five states in his district, he said he found himself thinking that people were getting it and were very tired.
Mathews said CWA made a point of reaching every member with calls, texts, emails and letters, aiming for seven or eight contacts per member and ultimately reaching nine. When members were asked what was on their minds, he said corruption came first, then the cost of things, and then the war. It was a list that mirrored the rest of the population, he said.
District 4 spans Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, and friends of labor won all four governor's races on the ballot. He counted three U.S. Senate wins in the district – in Ohio, Michigan and Illinois. He named Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and Juliana Stratton in Illinois as huge wins. Not one labor-friendly member of the U.S. Congress from District 4 lost, he said, and the five-state district picked up nine seats.
The results that Mathews thinks may prove most important were in less glamorous races. Friends of labor won all five secretary of state races in the District. With a presidential election two years away, those wins should give labor confidence that it will not see election-related gamesmanship or questions that can follow a lost election. He added that labor-friendly candidates won four of five attorney general races, which also matters because state-level trouble often runs through the attorney general and then the courts.
In Ohio, Mathews said the congressional district gains included union member Brian Poindexter in the 7th, Kristina Knickerbocker near Dayton in the 10th and Don Leonard near Columbus in the 10th. The wins lifted the number of labor-friendly members of Congress in Ohio from five to eight, which he called phenomenal. He also noted that Justice Jennifer Brunner was retained and Judge Marilyn Zayas won, adding a seat on the Ohio Supreme Court.
Three of the district's five states, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, will soon have the governor’s office and both legislative chambers in labor-friendly hands, Mathews said, so nothing should stand in the way of helping working families. In Ohio and Indiana, Republicans still control both legislative chambers but lost the supermajorities they previously held, so they cannot easily override a governor's veto. That matters most in Ohio, he said, where the legislature has overridden Gov. Mike DeWine at times, and Amy Acton is about to become governor.
He expects the changes to push lawmakers from both parties to work together, which he believes is what voters want. They are tired of corruption, meanness and bullying and want legislation that works for them, he said.
Mathews said the worker power agenda is about kitchen table issues, and he expects labor to have a seat at the table. He tells candidates that labor does not want an unlevel playing field, because a field tilted one way eventually swings back. Labor has lacked a level field in Ohio for about 16 years and nationally for about a decade, he said. He believes upcoming pro-labor bills will win on their merits.
He expects pushes on affordability, healthcare for the country and Buy American measures, Mathews said, including call center bills at the national and state level that would bar companies that offshore jobs from federal grants and loans.
Corruption was the top reason many swing voters cast their ballots as they did, Mathews said, so it has to be addressed. But while he believes the focus will include rooting out corruption, including possible impeachments, Congress also has to prove it will make life better for Americans. Otherwise, he warned, it will be business as usual.
Mathews also remembered Barbara Easterling, the longtime CWA leader who died Oct. 29. He described her as a larger-than-life figure at CWA headquarters in Washington. She broke glass ceilings, he said, including becoming the first woman to serve as secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO. After retiring, she went to work for the Alliance for Retired Americans. District 4 gives a Barb J. Easterling Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award every two years, Mathews noted.
Anyone who did not learn from her how to deal with people, members, and legal requirements was not paying attention, Mathews said. Her passing is a real loss, as she was a role model for anyone in labor, he added.
More information on CWA District 4 is available at cwad4.org.
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