Charging the “Bush has turned his back on working Americans,” the head of America’s 13-million-member labor movement, AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney, spoke to the media even as the Republican Convention was drawing to a close in New York City.

“Let me remind you that President Bush promised 5 million new jobs and he’s 6 million jobs behind on that promise,” Sweeney said during a media briefing he held with AFL-CIO Political Action Director Karen Ackerman.

In his travels around the country, Sweeney said he has seen what Bush’s policies have meant to working families: “The plant worker whose job went to China and who now works in a grocery store for half the pay and no benefits. The middle-aged couple who lost both their jobs and are doing everything they can to hold on to their house. The IT worker, who trained her replacement in India, can’t find another job and has exhausted her unemployment benefits. The young couple with a child who work full-time, but don’t have health insurance.”

The Census Bureau numbers support this anecdotal evidence. The typical household’s income is now $1,535 less than in 2000, 45 million Americans are without health insurance – 5 million more than when Bush took office – and more. All because, Sweeney said, “Bush has catered to corporate interests over those of working families.”

Evidence of the Bush Administration’s favoritism toward big business and the wealthy can be found in a laundry list of policies detrimental to working families, Sweeney charged. Who benefits from the Bush Administration’s decision to cut the right to overtime pay for up to 6 million workers, propose new tax breaks for corporations that move jobs to other countries, rollback safety and health protections, slash worker training, oppose a minimum wage increase, refuse to tackle out-of-control health care costs, pass a prescription drug benefit that helps drug companies more than seniors, or cut after-school care for children?

Even during Sweeney’s briefing, the labor movement was sending more than 15,000 union members to the swing states to knock on union household doors and talk to folks about the importance of the 2004 election.

1199-SEIU President Dennis Rivera is spending close to $30 million to send members to battleground states.

According to Ackerman, throughout the months of June and July, labor union across the country participated in the AFL-CIO’s door-to-door canvas walks in key locations. The Sept. 2 walks were being highlighted because they would fall on the day when President Bush was accepting his nomination and would dramatize an ongoing program.

When asked about unions like the New York Firefighters, who recently announced that they were endorsing Bush, Sweeney calmly answered: “Every union has the autonomy to make those decisions. But, what you are seeing is that 99.9 percent of the labor movement is united for Kerry.”

When asked about efforts to not only register voters but to help voters protect their vote, Sweeney said, “Given the voting rights fiasco in 2000, we’re determined to make sure every American’s vote is counted this year.”

Sweeney disclosed that the AFL-CIO is focusing on 12 states where they have witnessed a track record of problems and, along with their coalition partners, they are monitoring those states very closely.

“We have identified a state coordinator for each of the states and will monitor the situation. We have also placed a union lawyer in every state in the country to work with organizations to make sure that there is a legal presence ,” he added.

Sweeney admitted to being very fearful of people registering to vote only to find that they are denied the right to vote at the polls. He also said the labor movement was also concerned that voters who are challenged won’t be given a provisional ballot.

“We’re very fearful of voter intimidation,” Sweeney admitted. “We’ve seen it in Florida a few weeks ago and in several election cycles and we want to shine a spotlight on the potential of voters being intimidated. We have our own monitoring teams and we take this very, very seriously.”