Working men and women have an enormous stake in the 2000 elections, a watershed year when control of the White House, the Senate, the House, governorships and state legislatures is up for grabs. Issues of huge consequences hang in the balance: strengthening and protecting social security and Medicare, health care reform, fair trade and education. Rail workers know that the future of Amtrak, railroad retirement, jobs and protecting collective bargaining agreement rights also hang in the balance.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney is leading the labor movement's mobilization in 2000. Our mission is bold yet simple: to raise our voices in communities across the nation to ensure the values of working families--not rich corporate lobbyists--frame the debate. The AFL-CIO's more than 13 million members--and the 40 million members of union households--are our strength. In other words, People-Power--not solely the power of money--is where we will place our trust.

Politics is really about making sure your voice will be heard. It is no secret that without a labor movement individual and corporate wealth would drown out the voice of average working people.

Between 1980 and 1998 the average pay of workers increased 68 percent, while CEO pay soared 1,596 percent. According to Business Week, the average CEO of a major corporation made $10.6 million in 1998, 419 times more than an average blue-collar worker. That's the same crowd that wants to privatize Amtrak, railroad retirement, social security and wants government policy to favor the rich over people who work for a living.

These well paid elites are making sure corporate coffers are used to advance a harmful agenda. Big business, including the railroads, overwhelmingly outspend unions on politics. In the last election cycle, business contributed almost $667 million to candidates and parties, while working families, through their unions, contributed just under $61 million. This 11 to 1 imbalance mirrors the spending advantage corporations held in 1996.

To counter the strength of corporations and the wealthy, the 2000 mobilization is shaped by the best of what working families did in 1996 and 1998, as well as what we learned. In the November 1998 elections working families--indeed, BMWE members--made their voices heard at the polls, narrowing the anti-worker majority in Congress, defeating those out to gag worker participation in the political arena and increasing the number of union members and worker-friendly candidates across America. That single Election Day ushered in a new, permanent era of People-Powered politics. Working people turned out to vote at record levels, making the difference in race after race.

Grassroots mobilization. Engaging working families. Activating union members to educate and mobilize other members through one-on-one contact. That's what Labor 2000 will be about.

Labor 2000 will be geared toward building a permanent, unified political and legislative mobilization of union members who speak out and turn out both during and between elections. As we focus on political races, we're not looking to place all our stock in one political party or the other. Sure, we want to make the Gingrich era a permanent painful memory of a darker past. But we must remember that neither party has stopped the major carriers from using mergers to break your collective bargaining agreements!

We'll be looking at records of candidates from both parties who stand with working families on their issues--and those that don't. That's the standard.

Despite what the corporate lobbyists and their allies say, the overwhelming majority of AFL-CIO money goes to issue education, voter registration, and engaging people to make a difference on the issues they care about--and not to support political candidates.

In 2000 we'll have the biggest campaign and mobilization we've ever had, sharply focused on grassroots union member mobilization. What ever amount of money the labor movement spends will be dwarfed by the almost 20 to 1 advantage the other side has. But BMWE members--like the millions of workers across the entire labor movement--will determine whether People-Powered Politics can finally rule the day for America's working families.

So if you haven't registered yet, do it now! And VOTE!