Last year sometime (the old mind tends to forget when) we had a bit of a discussion about Working America and whether its strategy would work: sign up non-union workers to a kind of close relationship with the AFL-CIO, allowing labor to, then, turn those people out to vote.

Steve Greenhouse has a story today about labor’s turnout efforts heading into the 2006 election. I’ve read these stories before–about the massive amounts of money that are spent in each election to turn out union members, and yet we’ve been losing Congressional election after election for a decade. But, what did catch my eye was this factoid:

In another initiative, unions are campaigning among a group that has largely been off limits to them under federal law, nonunion workers. The federation has figured out a way to reach those workers, sending canvassers door to door to sign up 1.5 million nonunion workers, including 700,000 Ohioans, to join a new A.F.L. affiliate, Working America, with an eye to having them vote for labor-endorsed candidates.

Interesting. If this is true, and those workers can be turned out to vote for pro-labor candidates, that would certainly be a welcome step forward. The problem will be trying to have an honest assessment of how well it worked–meaning truly looking at what worked and what failed so it can be fixed. I don’t think that’s been a strength of labor’s political efforts. But, I wish Working American good luck out there.

Anybody been working on the project who can give some useful insights?