Working Family Issues

America has an important decision to make. Our next president will shape the future for working families. Find out where the 2008 presidential candidates stand on the most important issues for working families.

• Employee Free Choice Act

  America’s working families are struggling to make ends meet and our middle class is disappearing. The best opportunity working people have to get ahead economically is by joining together in unions to bargain with our employers for better wages and benefits. But the current system for forming unions and bargaining is broken. Employers routinely intimidate, harass, coerce and even fire workers who try to form unions and bargain for economic well-being. The Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800, S. 1041) would level the playing field for workers and employers and restore our freedom to choose a union.

  Get the candidates' positions:

  John McCain * Barack Obama

  
  
• Good Jobs

  America’s workforce is under pressure, facing stagnant wages, rapidly rising health care costs, disappearing retirement benefits and an overall lack of job security. It’s taken 10 years for America’s minimum-wage workers to get a raise, and families are still struggling to get by on what they earn. The next president must put a high priority on ensuring that the U.S. economy is creating good jobs at good wages.

  
  

  Get the candidates' positions:

  John McCain * Barack Obama

  
  
• Health Care

  America has a health care crisis. Forty-seven million Americans have no health insurance, while millions more are feeling the pressure of skyrocketing costs and inadequate coverage. Our health care system needs serious, comprehensive reform that will provide guaranteed affordable health care for all.

  
  

  Get the candidates' positions:

  John McCain * Barack Obama
  

• Trade & Manufacturing

  U.S. trade deals in recent years have cost America's workers millions of jobs and lowered living and working standards for workers globally. The next president must fight for a trade policy that supports, rather than hurts, working families here and abroad.

  
  

  Get the candidates' positions:

  John McCain * Barack Obama
  

• Retirement Security

  After a lifetime of work, retirees deserve a basic level of security. But employer-provided pensions are disappearing and Social Security is under threat. The next president must strengthen Social Security, rather than allow dangerous privatization schemes, and protect workers' pensions and retirement savings.

  
  

  Get the candidates' positions:

  John McCain * Barack Obama

  
  
• Education

  Every child deserves a world-class public education and access to affordable higher education. America's future—our ability to compete globally and grow economically—depends on what we’re willing to provide to our children.

  
  

  Get the candidates' positions:

  John McCain * Barack Obama