by Lee Erickson—Minnesota
I was canvassing in Winona, MN. I was having a pretty good night, until I went to this one door later in the evening. The gentlemen was really into politics and was very passionate about the issues. Before I could even ask for a dues payment, he had the five dollars in his hand. My pretty good night ended up being a great night.
Tags: membership
by Beruk Zeru—Minnesota
So I was out canvassing with my trainer, Chelsey and I had a spell where I had a few doors being slammed in my face. We approached this next door and a woman came to the door, I began giving her my rap.
She didn’t look that interested, but as I continued to explain the health care problem, she swung her door open and said, “Just a second.” She came back about 30 seconds later and said, ”Here, have some cookies. What you guys are doing is so important.”
She was very nice and supported all of our efforts. She made my day, because after that I had the confidence to talk with the rest of the neighborhood. I ended up having a great day because of her.
Tags: Health Care, membership
by Peter Breitholtz—Minnesota
I canvassed a door last Friday in Anoka and the entire family was pretty excited about an activist being present at their home. The couple’s young daughter insisted on signing up as a member. While her father signed up the little girl extended her left hand to me to shake and said, “Thank you for your activism!”
Tags: children, family, membership
by Lynne Bolton—Minnesota
So I’m out canvassing over in Northeast Minneapolis. I’d had a pretty good night—lots of support and agreement. I knocked on the first door of my callbacks. I’m doing my rap, the guy is smiling and nodding. When I finish it up, he smiles even bigger and says “I’m so Republican I hate John McCain. Alan Keyes would have been my guy and I hate, hate HATE national health care. But I like to consider myself informed.” He was so personable, so friendly I couldn’t help it and just started to laugh. I told him I wouldn’t push him to sign up but I did give him a flier so he could go online and check us out.
He took the flier, then he told me how much he admired us for being out here organizing and exercising our right to free speech, joked with me about our probable difference of opinion on a whole spectrum of issues (at one point I told him he take our actions online and we wouldn’t tell anyone), told me a terrible blonde joke and wished me luck getting members. And you know, I think he really meant it.
I told him that he had been the best, friendliest “no” that I had ever received. Then I told him about the blog and that tonight I would be blogging about him, so he should read it. So A, if you’re reading this, thanks again for being an uplifting “No”. I know you’ll remember us at Working America and that you know we’re fighting for you too—even if you are on a different side of the fence from me.
by Sarah Podenski—Minnesota
I’m the Office Manager for the Twin Cities office, and I figured it was high time Office Managers were blogging! Yesterday I had a blogworthy story.
As we were preparing the crew to go out to turf, the phone rang. It was someone wanting to work for us, so I started the job call rap, asked her name and phone number and where she had heard about us.
She told me that someone came to her door the night before. “I have to admit, I’m twenty-three and I’ve only voted once. I feel like sometimes my vote doesn’t matter,” she said. But this canvasser who came to her door made her feel that even such a small thing like signing her name on a clipboard could have influence, could make change in her country. She admitted that when she heard the doorbell ring, she thought she’d just get rid of whoever it was and go back to what she was doing. “I was captured,” she said. “I had to stay and listen to everything he had to say.”
I’m so proud to be part of this office and part of this organization. We are empowering people, and it’s a wonderful thing.
Tags: membership, taking action
by Jeanne M—Minnesota
I met a woman whose husband had been laid off. He started his own software support business, and they’d tried to get health insurance. They applied to six different companies who kept turning them down because their daughter gets allergy injections. The last company they applied to turned them down because her husband’s body mass index is too high, since he is built like a football player. It’s not that they don’t want to have health insurance, it’s that no one will insure them.
Tags: Health Care, insurance
by Peter Breitholtz—Minnesota
I spoke with a young man last week in Northeast Minneapolis. He and his wife were busy raising two young boys and both worked full time. However, the young man I spoke with shared with me that he had been laid off three times by his current employer and rehired. All three times he was laid off just before his health benefits were to kick in. He shared with me that he is seriously considering moving to Canada.
Tags: Jobs, outsourcing
by Lynne Bolton—Minnesota
My name is Lynne and I’m a 41 year old canvasser out of Minneapolis in my second week of training. I took this job in part because I had been laid off, but also because after 20 years of being in the work force, I wanted my work to mean something.
Winter canvassing is hard. For the first time in years, we’ve been having a real Minnesota winter. That means below zero temperatures and winds that gust hard enough to scour the snow off the ground and blow it in your face and down your neck no matter how bundled up you are. Add that to the big dogs, the dark and the people that say “I hate unions” and slam the door in your face, well, some nights this feels like a Sisyphusean enterprise.
Last night was one of those. I had some really difficult turf, and found myself getting frustrated, wanting to give up. But this morning as I was thinking about the past two weeks, I realized I can’t do that.
As difficult as last night was, as hard as it was to get people to sign up, we still made a difference. Because all those people I talked to saw and heard something they hadn’t seen in a while: they saw a person out there talking and fighting. Fighting for kids, fighting for workers, fighting for them. And in the back of their minds, when they hear about health care costs rising or education funds being cut, they’ll remember we’re out here.
And I’ll remember that too, tonight when I go back out on that turf. Because change that starts small grows strong.
Tags: membership
by Charity James—Minnesota
Last night while I was canvassing in an apartment complex. I knocked on the door of a 98-year-old lady. After going over the rap with her, I asked her to sign up. All she kept saying was, “this is crazy, because I pay $660 a month for rent, and we do need more affordable housing.” I stood confused for a second, then noticed that she thought I was offering affordable housing.
Again, I let her know what we were about. She then let me know that she was having a hard time hearing, but her hearing aid had been misplaced and her health care plan wouldn’t allow her to have a new one for another two months. She said that if she had better health care, she would be able to hear me better. I told her “that’s what we are out here fighting for.” She signed up and became a dues-paying member.
After about 20 minutes in her home, I was ready to go, but not before I gave her a couple of numbers for better housing.
Tags: Health Care, Housing, membership, seniors
by Chris Kesler—Minnesota
I was out canvassing on a particularly cold evening and was having little luck finding anyone who was home. I finally happened across a gentleman that had two small children running around and was somewhat skeptical of what I was doing. I convinced him to take a minute to let me in and I explained to him how Working America was started and the various activities that we engaged in to fight for workers. He was impressed and signed on as a dues-paying member. I continued on around the cul de sac and to my surprise saw someone running toward me in the snow. It was the gentleman who had signed up, he found the mail-in card inside the pamphlet that I had given him. He wanted to make sure he was a member and did not need to send in the card. I was inspiring to me that he was so concerned that he might not be a member of our organization he ran out in the snow to make sure.
Tags: membership
