But the Cleveland AFL-CIO and member unions were hard at work long before any endorsement, developing a system of communicating with members about issues through monthly mailings, phone calls, household visits, union meetings, training sessions for leaders and volunteers and work-site conversations with union members. The effort has "a focus and volume I haven't seen in my 22 years as a union official," says Ryan. But there's also a new urgency. Union officials are told to distribute political messages as promptly and widely as they would if they were going on strike the next day, said AFL-CIO state political coordinator Kyle McDermott.

The Communications Workers of America endorsed Kerry earlier than the AFL-CIO, but its members, too, are as focused on November as they are on Super Tuesday. "We've done a mailing to members and participated in rallies all across the state," says Seth Rosen, assistant to the regional vice-president of CWA. "More importantly, we've spent six months doing various kinds of member and leadership education focused on Ohio and other battleground states. If you look at what we're doing, most is about November, not the primary."

There's also a special union push among both young and old voters. Rosen said that the CWA had conducted focus groups among union members under 30 who had never voted. "They were all very concerned about the economy, about jobs, about healthcare, and they were very clear that Bush was not going to do anything about that," he said. "But they're not all convinced, many not, that a Democrat is the person who can address these issues." They were little swayed by the Republican wedge social issues, but were cynical about politics in general, a sentiment the union hopes to address.

While there are 128,000 union members in Cuyahoga County, including Cleveland and suburbs, there are about 40,000 retirees as well whom unions can reach. The retirees council has already proved its clout: It spearheaded a successful campaign to win lower prescription drug prices in the state and its early opposition to the war in Iraq pushed the Cleveland AFL-CIO to become one of the first labor councils to oppose the war. Now the council is gearing up to register retirees and drive home a message that Bush's Medicare prescription drug plan is a recipe for destruction of Medicare. But the retirees have a deeper concern that motivates them as well. "We are dismayed at what is happening to our Republic," said council president and retired ironworker C. Richard Henderson. "They're tearing the Republic apart. They're taking the pride out of being an American, for God's sake."

These labor efforts link up with campaigns underway among other key constituencies with an overlapping, reinforcing message. For example, America Coming Together has been canvassing in key cities -- Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo, Cincinnati, Youngstown. ACT's 200 canvassers, a group that includes not only the usual young recruits but many middle-aged factory workers who are still out of work, register voters. Depending on the interests of people they contact, they also hand out carefully documented issue leaflets that sharply criticize the Bush administration on job creation, dropping steel tariff protection and nearly 30 other issues.

African-American communities are also primed. "The black community, working-class people, will really come out for their candidate," said Roosevelt Coats, Cleveland City Council member and former Steelworkers official. "It's just undecided who their candidate is now." Although Coats, like many Cleveland politicians and labor leaders, saw the hometown candidate, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, as his ideological favorite, Coats was also impressed with Edwards. Cincinnati-based political consultant Brewster Rhoads thinks Edwards has made a conscious and effective bid for black support in Ohio. But the real energy comes from dislike of Bush, which has pushed the level of intensity of interest in the primary among blacks in the Columbus area well above that of likely white Democratic voters, according to polling Rhoads commissioned.

Whatever the group, the anxieties are similar. "I think the economy is going to be the defining issue," said Cleveland City Councilman Jay Westbrook. "Within the last year, most people thought Bush could cloak himself in national security, but through continued economic erosion and a vigorous Democratic presidential primary contest, the country and state are shifting to a point of view that Bush is selling us out."

Last fall, a long-established factory in Westbrook's west-side ward, Midland Products, closed and moved its truck frame production to Mexico, throwing 300 people out of work. "There's an identifiable one-to-one connection between that shutdown and the start-up and expansion in Mexico," he said, making not only jobs but trade a hot issue. Globalization is also a hot topic for telephone workers of CWA. "Offshoring is a huge issue with our telephone members," Rosen said. "Manufacturing work to Mexico is old news. The hot news is call center work going to India. Companies like SBC and ATT are outsourcing call center, customer support and technical support."

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