This evening a press release was sent to me while I, along with the rest of the world, was watching the United States make itself known that we want and need Barack Obama to be our next president. I glanced down at the phone (where the email bounced to) and glanced through to the last paragraph:

"This is a great day -- a historic day, now let's get this country unified and working for regular, middle-class Americans again. We elected a great man, but we can't stop here because our real work starts now."

The release was from the Teamsters Union; the quote from our union's president.

Before I could get around to the computer again, more releases were coming through, more emails ... all saying the same thing: Obama-Biden is a win for Working Families!

So many of us have taken to the Internet and put our boots to the ground to organize, mobilize and educate folks about our needs, our issues, and how this candidate went on record to stand with us. We talked about the Employee Free Choice Act and Healthcare, we talked banning permenant replacement workers, and we talked about the difficulty everyday working people have in joining a union if they want one / need one.

Our work has paid off, we won!

Anyone who has spent a day or more in a union knows, with our dysfunctions and crappy days, we are a group of men and women who stand up with one another for a voice at work, for rights at work, for dignity ... We don't generally give a damn about someone's accent, the color of their skin, their gender, what they do in their bedrooms, or what religion they were born to ... 

I talked yesterday with a friend who has been out on the trail for more than three weeks. She told me some of the experiences she has had talking with both union members and nonmembers, and the concerns folks shared with her. The work has been tirelessly performed. If it is not this one organizer out there, it is the countless others online behind screen names and passwords to websites where they can comment or write original thoughts to what was taking place.

I sit back tonight and think, wow, our work has paid off, we won!

There is so much more to reflect on; think about, consider for the future -- and I am sure that we will. For now -- before heading to bed on this historic night -- I wanted to write a note of congratulations to all of the men and women who work so hard to get the voice of labor heard across the United States.

We are victorious; now let's organize!