I don't know if this has been diaried yet, but I haven't seen it on the rec list, so here it is:
From the Detroit Free Press:
UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said the union's International Executive Board voted unanimously to endorse Obama and noted "a historic primary campaign which activated and mobilized millions of voters."
"On every issue that counts, we can count on Barack Obama to stand with our members, our families and our communities," Gettelfinger said. "He has pledged to rebuild America's manufacturing base and to assist the auto industry as we retool toward a cleaner, more modern transportation system."
Gettelfinger also said in the union's endorsement that Obama supports workers' rights to organize, will push to make health care affordable and available to everyone and "understands the need to change our trade policies so that U.S. workers and U.S. companies can compete fairly in the global economy."
In Michigan, this is very significant. Obama was polling low in Michigan is part because of Hillary supporters, and also in part because Michigan's largest union hadn't backed a candidate yet. Which was why May's Michigan poll between Obama and McCain showed 22% of the voters were undecided. And the new Rasmussen poll was taken before the UAW endorsement. But with the primary behind us, and with the UAW's outstanding GOTV operations, things are looking good. The MIGOP is also in debt, and despite a strong GOTV effort on their part in 2006, they simply couldn't get enough indepedents to buy what the Repugs were selling.
And when you're running for a county office in Michigan, this is all good to know:).
We still have a long fight ahead of us in Michigan. The primary left a lot of Democrats ticked off at their own party, so we'll have to work harder on bringing the Michigan Democrats together. McCain is also blasting the state with TV ads, and Obama has yet to make the airwaves here, despite the numerous rallies he's held within the state. But if we work as hard as we did in 2004 and 2006, we'll be looking at a blue state once again.
So as we like to say in Michigan: LETS GO BLUE!