AFSCME President Patrick Moran, appearing in a roundtable discussion on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, vowed that our union will continue to lead in the fight for voting and labor rights as the midterm elections approach. 

The current administration appears dead set on rigging the November elections to favor the president’s party, including restricting mail-in voting. But voting is still taking place and the administration’s efforts aren’t bearing fruit as of now.

Working people are fighting back, and organized labor plays a unique role in protecting our democracy, said participants in the Labor and Democracy Roundtable, convened by U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and the Senate Democrats’ Election Protection Task Force. 

“We will raise our voices – in the political arena, in the workplace, at the negotiating table,” said Moran, one of several national union leaders who spoke at the meeting.  

Participants at the event, held in the U.S. Senate, discussed the role of unions in educating and mobilizing voters, President Donald Trump’s attempts to sow doubt about the midterm elections’ outcome, and how working people are protecting our democracy.  

AFSCME members are mobilizing across the country to defend our voting rights and ensure we have free and fair elections. AFSCME’s Get Organized program is building worker power nationwide and our union’s PEOPLE program is helping elect pro-worker candidates at the local, state and federal levels.  

On Monday, the Supreme Court blocked Trump’s plan to limit the delivery of mail ballots. Roundtable participants praised the ruling while marveling that such an intervention was even necessary. 

“We’re calling out the threats to our democracy – threats coming from the very people charged with protecting it,” Moran said. “These are people who swore an oath to the Constitution and have spent every waking hour since trying to tear it apart.” 

Restricting mail-in voting is just one tactic Trump and his allies are using. This administration has taken unprecedented steps to control the electoral process leading up to the midterm elections. Anti-worker forces are trying to purge eligible voters from the rolls, fire election officials, target pro-democracy organizations, intimidate volunteers trying to register their neighbors to vote, and make it harder for everyone – but especially women, people of color and the elderly – to vote. 

“This is not politics as usual,” Moran said. “This is an attack on the right to vote.”   

Watch a video of Moran explaining how working people are fighting back.

Moran acknowledged that “it can be hard to worry about democracy when you’re worried about affording groceries and making rent,” drawing the connection that the same people who are attacking our right to vote are also responsible for the affordability crisis.  

The best way to fight back, Moran and others said, is to talk to our neighbors and co-workers, and to turn out the vote in November. 

“We continue to arm our members with the facts about their rights – both as workers and as citizens in a democracy,” Moran said. 

The roundtable discussion included, among others, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers; Princess Moss, president of the National Education Association; Claude Cummings Jr., president of Communications Workers of America; Joseph Bryant, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union; Puneet Maharaj, executive director of National Nurses United; and Jonathan Smith, president of the American Postal Workers Union.  

Senators included, among others, Padilla, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA). 

On Election Day, Nov. 3, we must elect pro-worker candidates who stand with working families.