This entry by AFSCME President Gerald McEntee was originally posted on The Huffington Post.

Not since the darkest days of the Great Depression has an American President taken office with so many challenges awaiting him. But here’s the good news: America has overcome similar challenges before. And we can do it again.

When Franklin D. Roosevelt took the oath of office, he promised the nation bold and dynamic leadership and proved that government can be a partner with the American people to see us through dark times. Through robust public investment, FDR created jobs, provided relief and guaranteed a more secure retirement for working men and women. Today, the challenges awaiting President-elect Obama are different, but the solutions are similar: we need to reinvest in the long term stability and prosperity of our communities.

This week, AFSCME launched a new campaign, “Make America Happen,” to support President-elect Obama’s efforts to revitalize our economy, provide health care for all and strengthen the middle class. We’ve created a new video as part of our campaign, highlighting the lessons to be learned from FDR’s response to the Great Depression. You can see the video and sign up for the campaign to “Make America Happen” at: www.MakeAmericaHappen.com.

President-elect Barack Obama’s call for bold action and civic engagement in response to our present crisis echoes FDR’s inspiring call to pull the nation out of the Great Depression and forge the New Deal. The video shows how our nation triumphed over economic crisis once before and can do so again by reinvesting in public service, providing health care for all Americans and growing the middle class.

In the weeks and months ahead, the “Make America Happen” campaign will build the grassroots support needed to overcome resistance and enact the kind of bold programs that are needed to address the national crisis we face today. With Barack Obama in the White House and a new Congress in place, working families have never had more public support nor had such a historic chance to affect a major shift in American politics. It’s up to each of us right now to make the most of this critical time.

You can be a part of this historic effort. Sign our petition to advance three legislative priorities of the Make America Happen” campaign:

• Jumpstart the Economy: America needs a comprehensive economic recovery package that provides aid to ailing state and local governments and maintains vital public services and the jobs of the dedicated employees who provide them.
• Make Health Care Affordable: Our broken health care system must be reformed and the skyrocketing costs of coverage must be controlled. Guaranteed quality, affordable health care everyone can count on is key to economic recovery.
• Rebuild the Middle Class: Workers should be free to join unions and bargain for better wages and benefits. Unions are a ticket to the middle class and they raise the standard of living for all. We can accomplish this by passing the Employee Free Choice Act.

FDR’s leadership inspired a generation and helped America’s economy get back on track. Barack Obama offers bold leadership and new solutions to address the crises we currently face. Now, we need to be involved. Already, prominent Republicans in Congress have signaled strong opposition to much of the President-elect’s agenda, including his call to give states and local governments the support they need to continue providing the services that the public needs during a difficult recession. We cannot allow them to scuttle critically important proposals that will turn our economy around and build a better future for our country.

Take a look at AFSCME’s video and sign the petition urging quick action on an agenda to create jobs and protect vital services, provide health care for all and strengthen America’s middle class. Working together we can “Make America Happen.” Again.

New opinion research shows that 78 percent of Americans favor legislation to make it easier for workers to form unions and bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions – and 73 percent specifically support the Employee Free Choice Act.

The survey, conducted for the AFL-CIO by Hart Research Associates Dec. 4-10, shows broad support for the Employee Free Choice Act across political party and state lines:

Three-quarters of moderate Republicans, 87 percent of Democrats and 69 percent of Independents support the legislation. Opposition is confined to 36 percent of Republicans who identify themselves as conservatives.

The broadest public support is for the majority sign-up provision, which puts the choice of how to form a union in the hands of workers, not employers. 75 percent of those surveyed favor allowing employees to have a union once a majority of employees in a workplace say they want one.

Strong majorities also support other provisions of the bill: 64 percent are in favor of strengthening penalties for companies that illegally intimidate or fire employees who try to organize unions, and 61 percent favor establishing third-party binding arbitration to ensure that workers who choose to form a union can get a contract.

For more information about this survey, read the post on the AFL-CIO Now blog and coverage from the Huffington Post.

As American workers face the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression, support is growing for the Employee Free Choice Act. Americans understand now more than ever that the Employee Free Choice Act must be a component of any long-term recovery for our economy, because it will give workers more freedom to organize and bargain collectively.

Recently, Pride at Work, the AFL-CIO’s LGBT constituency group, announced that a broad coalition of national lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender organizations have announced their support for the Employee Free Choice Act. Among the groups supporting the bill are the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), National Stonewall Democrats and the National Youth Advocacy Coalition.

Jeremy Bishop, Executive Director of Pride at Work notes that:

“America’s workers, who are already suffering badly from growing income inequality and declining benefits, badly need legislation that will ensure their right to organize by protecting them from bullying and intimidation by unscrupulous employers. Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act is vital if we are to rebuild middle-class living standards for working people in this country, and LGBT labor is committed to making that happen.”

Jon Hoadley, Executive Director of Stonewall Democrats, makes the point that working men and women and their unions have made a real difference in the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans:

“Because of the efforts of unions, millions of Americans enjoy non-discrimination policies and equitable same-sex benefits at work. Even when our federal and state governments have been slow to act, workers organized through unions have proactively secured equal workplace protections through negotiating efforts.”

The New York Times editorial board makes a strong, clearly argued and unambiguous case that President-elect Obama must make “a forceful labor agenda” a top priority of his new administration. His first order of business should be to give his Labor Secretary-designate, Rep. Hilda Solis, the power she needs to protect working families – including a push for quick passage of the Employee Free Choice Act:

“Only the president can give the new labor secretary the clout she will need to do well at a job that has been done so badly for so long, at such great cost to the quality of Americans’ lives.”

Read more at the AFL-CIO Now Blog.

In the same issue of the Times, Nobel Laureate Economist Paul Krugman calls on the country’s governors to avoid repeating, at the state level, the “fiscal mistake of 1932, in which the federal government tried to balance its budget in the face of a severe recession.”

Writes Krugman:

“But even as Washington tries to rescue the economy, the nation will be reeling from the actions of 50 Herbert Hoovers — state governors who are slashing spending in a time of recession, often at the expense both of their most vulnerable constituents and of the nation’s economic future. These state-level cutbacks range from small acts of cruelty to giant acts of panic — from cuts in South Carolina’s juvenile justice program, which will force young offenders out of group homes and into prison, to the decision by a committee that manages California state spending to halt all construction outlays for six months. … But let’s step back for a moment and contemplate just how crazy it is, from a national point of view, to be cutting public services and public investment right now.”

We do indeed know how crazy such cuts are. AFSCME members are on the frontlines of this crisis, trying to serve more people in need and doing so with less resources.