On the Campaign Front LinesDon Dawson
CWA Local 7102
Vote to Support Your Paycheck
Don Dawson got involved in political activity the same way that lots of other union members do—he took on a task that needed to be done and ran with it.
A sales and service consultant for Qwest Communications and a member of Communications Workers of America Local 7102 in Des Moines, Iowa, Dawson says back in 2003 when union members were getting ready for the 2004 election season, “We needed someone for our local to work on our COPE program. For some reason, I took to it and started signing up members. I just took it and ran."
And he did an incredible job. In a local union that had some 1,200 members, "We signed up about 250 members and raised over $30,000," he says.
"We just went around and talked to all our members and tried to get them to contribute and help our good candidates in Iowa by giving them money." In the entire state, CWA members had been contributing about $9,000 per year to their union's COPE program. Dawson and his Local 7102 sisters and brothers more than quadrupled that amount.
As Election Day approached, Dawson took two months off from his job to work full-time for the local. "We knocked on doors, we did phone calling several times, we leafleted workplaces and handed out fliers to our members as they went in to work," Dawson recalls. Along the way, he learned a big lesson: "I believe that every contact you make with a member is going to help get their vote."
This year, he's cutting back a little on his political involvement and devoting time to helping care for his three kids, including his new baby, Annie. But he's already pitched in at one phone bank and "we're getting ready to do some knocking on doors and more phone banks as things get closer. If you look at things from the workers' standpoint, the only way we're going to get things to change is to get some decent people in there."
In Dawson's view, two of the largest issues for working people this year are wages and health care.
As for wages: "You take a look at the economy and $3 for a gallon of gas, and lots of people have to choose between paying for gas for their car and putting food on the table to feed their babies." Across the street from his workplace is a nonunion insurance provider. "The employees there work for $25,000–30,000 per year and they're paying $200 or $300 a month for health insurance. In Iowa, that's barely a living wage."
And with health care costs spinning out of control, "whenever we go to the bargaining table, we're taking a beating on health care," he points out. "Last year, we got a new contract, and it was our first contract with Qwest where we had to pay a premium for health insurance. If we don't change things, it will just go downhill from there. At a monthly luncheon that our local has, a retiree told me he's paying $3,000 a month for prescription drugs. The gaps in coverage are breaking people."
Living wages, affordable, quality health care—these are reasons why Dawson says when he talks with his union sisters and brothers, "I always preach to them to vote with their wallet. Our biggest thing is supporting your paycheck."
To Don Dawson, that's the real bottom line.
