The Democratic National Convention in Boston brought together 800 delegates from dozens of unions nationwide. In a speech to the Labor Delegates Caucus, kicking off the convention, vice-presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards assured union delegates that they will play the decisive role in electing the new president and vice president if working family voters mobilize and vote in large numbers in November.

The labor contingent, led by AFL-CIO executive officers, promised to mobilize as never before in the 2004 election season to take back America.

“We need you to make the difference,” said Edwards, whose mother is a member of the letter carriers. His father was a mill worker and his brother is a member of the Electrical Workers. In 2003, Edwards had a 100 percent AFL-CIO working families voting record. Edwards was a co-sponsor with presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, of the Employee Free Choice Act, federal legislation to protect workers’ right to organize. This issue was the topic of a special workshop for union delegates at the convention.

Good jobs, health care reform, workers’ rights and workplace safety were among the other top labor issues highlighted by Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa in his convention speech to promote Kerry.

Hoffa and Local 237 President Carl Haynes represent 1.3 million Teamsters on the AFL-CIO Executive Board. “This election marks the greatest opportunity in half a century to improve the lives of — and restore hope to — working families,” Hoffa said in a statement released at the convention’s opening July 26. “Over the past four years, we have seen our job market hemorrhage, our economy collapse, and our healthcare system get wracked with skyrocketing costs. All of these have combined to create an unprecedented squeeze on America’s middle class families.” Hoffa called for Teamsters and labor-friendly voters to “rally around the Democratic Kerry-Edwards” ticket and renew our efforts to take back the White House.”

In his address to the convention, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney reaffirmed his view that union members hold the key to the election if they campaign vigorously to reclaim America. “Every day between now and November second, thousands of working family activists will walk, rally, leaflet, phone, e-mail, write and talk our way into victory,” said Sweeney in a column for America@Work magazine.

The campaign is focused on educating friends, neighbors and families about “President George W. Bush’s failed policies and Sen. John Kerry’s plans to create good jobs, ensure health coverage and restore pride and momentum to a nation tarnished by the Bush administration’s domestic heartlessness and international incompetence,” said Sweeney, calling on all union members to “reclaim America and put America back in the hands of the people who built it.” It’s a matter of “do or die,” Sweeney emphasized, noting that the labor movement has suffered serious declines at the hands of Republicans. “If we lose, they’ll have us.”

To learn more about the candidates and join the campaign, log on to www.teamstersforkerry.org.