A GCIU shop steward opens the front door of her house on Saturday to go to store for milk and bread.

She turns back, remembering the library book on biology her daughter in high school needs returned and the package she needs to send to her son in college. She gets in her car. But before pulling out of the driveway, she puts on the lipstick she forgot while showering and dressing. She backs out of the driveway, pulls up to the traffic light, then is on her way to complete the morning errands.

This GCIU member may not realize it, but nearly everything she did during her routine Saturday morning involved politics. [Answers are at the end of the article]

GCIU Vice Pres. Lawrence Martinez, who chairs the General Board's Legislative Committee, said many people don't think of politics as an every day reality. "They think it's just an election – something that happens once every couple of years. But the fact is that the election this year will affect our lives every single day in so many ways that we take for granted."

"Elected officials and lawmakers determine the quality of our wages, working conditions, benefits, job safety and health, health care, retirement, communities, education, consumer goods, trade, roads, water, food, air, communication, and nearly everything else in our lives," Martinez said.

In the U.S. Congress, for example, anti-worker members figured prominently in the recent Senate defeat of fair pay legislation that would have benefitted working women and their families, Martinez said. They also:

• Voted to prevent the Occupational Safety and Health Administration from issuing an ergonomics rule that would help protect workers from repetitive motion injuries.

• Proposed to do little to help the nation's senior citizens cope with soaring prescription drug costs.

• By one vote, nixed a bill that would have provided 161 million Americans with rights as managed care patients and instead opted for a weaker, industry-approved bill.

• Voted to cut funding for worker protection programs like OSHA and the National Labor Relations Board by more than 4 percent and to provide no funds for the president's new school construction project.

"Social Security, Medicare, health care, workers' rights – these are all issues that will keep coming up in the next Congress," Martinez said. "Whether we benefit or not depends on who we elect."

Martinez added that judges in state and federal courts who are appointed by elected officials also play a major role in interpreting laws, regulations and contracts. "To understand that, we only have to look at the recent decision against our members locked out by the News and Free Press in Detroit that was issued by three U.S. Circuit Court judges appointed by the anti-worker Reagan administration," he said.

Martinez said the next president probably will have the opportunity to nominate two – and possibly as many as four – Supreme Court judges and many other lower court judges whose nominations have been held up by anti-worker legislators in the U.S. Senate, which has the power to approve court nominations.

Because of the federal 2000 census, the elections this year present another political factor that will affect future elections. "People rarely consider redistricting as an important politics-related issue," Martinez said. He noted that, while the number of House seats is based on the population count, the lines for the districts for those seats are drawn up by politicians. How those district lines are drawn can determine who gets elected in the future.

"Once you realize how many ways politics affects every day life," Martinez said, "there are no more excuses about getting registered and getting to the polls to vote. And there are plenty of reasons to get active beyond carrying out those simple democratic responsibilities."

"We have a very good chance to pick up seats in the U.S. House and Senate for worker-friendly candidates this election year," Martinez said. "And, of course, we need to keep the White House worker friendly. But we also need state and local legislators, governors, mayors, and school board officials who are on our side."

"To do this," Martinez said, "we need every GCIU family to register, vote, and participate in political action programs." In the 1998 election cycle, he noted, business outspent unions 11 to one in campaign contributions. Business contributed more than $666 million to candidates and parties, while unions spent $60.8 million.

"There's no way we can outspend our foes," Martinez said. "But we have a people advantage. In 1998, for example, thanks to the AFL-CIO's mobilization efforts, union members registered a half a million union families and made millions of phone calls and distributed millions of pieces of literature about candidates. The result? We picked up five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives while experts predicted a 15- to 20-seat loss."

Martinez said that the AFL-CIO, through its central labor councils, state federations, and affiliates, is mounting massive registration and get-out-the vote efforts for the 2000 elections.

"I urge all GCIU families to participate in labor's mobilization for the 2000 elections," Martinez said.

The AFL-CIO's website includes a listing of state and central labor bodies in "People-Powered Politics" in the "Working Families Agenda" section as well as downloadable materials to register voters.

How do the GCIU shop steward's Saturday errands involve politics? Here are just some of the possible answers:

• The job of shop steward involves negotiating and enforcing contracts, filing grievances, and other duties. All of these duties are based on labor law, which is written by federal and state elected legislators and interpreted by the National Labor Relations Board and the courts, whose members are appointed by elected officials. They also depend on allowed management practices, which again are defined by labor law and precedents.

• The GCIU member has the day off. Before federal and state wage and hour laws, workers commonly worked six days a week with no overtime, paid vacations, sick leave, or other benefits we now take for granted.

• Home ownership depends on many factors, such as wages, interest rates, and loan availability. All of those factors are determined directly and indirectly by elected officials. For example, federal and state governments set floor or minimum wage levels, which in turn affect other wage levels. Higher union wages are based on the politically granted right to belong to a union and negotiate over wages and benefits. The Federal Reserve Bank, composed of members appointed by elected officials, sets interest rates. Federal and state governments enact laws to protect against discrimination in buying a home.

• The price and availability of milk and bread are related to government policies and supports for the farming industry. What is in or not in food – pesticides and vitamin additives, for example – is a function of government regulation that involves elected legislators and their administrative officials.

• Public and school libraries are funded with tax dollars. What books are in those libraries are sometimes determined by local elected officials.

• What is taught in her daughter's biology class has been a factor in local and national political debates and elections and in the courts, whose members are appointed by elected officials.

• The U.S. Postal Service is a government agency. It is regulated by Congress, which approves through funding levels the cost of postage and the services provided.

• The prices of gasoline and cars are impacted by government policies and taxes. The safety features in cars – or lack thereof – are also regulated by the government. The courts also have been involved in auto safety during liability lawsuits.

• Yes, even the safety of the ingredients in her lipstick are subject to regulation by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

• The availability and safety of water supplies are determined by local, state, and federal governments.

• Where the clothing she donned that morning was made is related to federal trade laws, which are set by Congress, the White House and officials appointed by the president.

• Even traffic lights are a political issue. Local elected officials and their administrative appointees can determine where lights are located. And, of course, traffic lights and the construction and maintenance of roads are funded with state and federal tax dollars.