In 1984, Diane Hanson had enough of her low-wage job as an accounting clerk and decided it was time to look somewhere else. When her husband Tim, a journeyman painter for then Painters and Allied Trades Local 781, suggested the union's apprenticeship program, she jumped at the opportunity––and became the third woman in a Milwaukee building trades union.

Today, the full-time painter for the Milwaukee County Parks and Recreation Department also co-chairs the IUPAT District Council 7 Political Action Committee and works to convince members about the importance of politics and to hold lawmakers accountable.

“When we started the political action committee a few years ago, I'd like to say that I felt about it the way I do now—that I'm doing it because I want to give something back to the union and community—but I didn't come to that realization until I'd be involved and saw how important it was,” she says.

Hansen, 42, became involved in political action in a 2002 county supervisor campaign and by the time 2004 elections rolled around, she had learned some of the nuts and bolts of political mobilizing.

“We had three main goals: implementing a voter registration program, enacting and following the AFL-CIO's 10 Point Political Action Plan and plugging into AFL-CIO GOTV [Get Out The Vote] program,” she says

Hansen, who continued her full-time job throughout the campaign, spent an additional 30 hours a week leafleting worksites, recruiting members for phone banks and taking part in door-to-door walks to talk with union members about issues critical to working families.

Hanson was in good company: IUPAT members were some of the most active Labor 2004 volunteers, says John Goldstein, president of the Milwaukee County Labor Council.

Hanson says her experience demonstrated how one-on-one communication with members is “one of the most effective means of communication” and “should be the cornerstone in all campaigns.” She credits the work of all the unions working together with the unprecedented member mobilization in the 2004 elections.

“Union teamwork produced solidarity. I don't think we'd ever seen such a strong coming together of unions for a common cause,” she says.