By John J. Sweeney

Read more from President Sweeney.

Labor Day is the one day of the year we honor workers and take a break to relax a bit and think about what being working men and women means to us. Labor Day is also the start of the last lap toward victory in November's election. This Labor Day, I hope you will make a pledge to help turn around America for working families by engaging full-steam in this critical election—starting with the massive union-member-to-union-member neighborhood Labor 2008 canvass taking place all over the country Sept. 4, the night John McCain accepts the Republican nomination for the presidency.

Todd Hornyak, an Ohio Letter Carriers member, is joining the Sept. 4 walks because, "This country's heading down the wrong path. We need to change the leadership of this country for working people."

Hornyak says, "I'm looking forward to building a better future by walking Sept. 4."

Valerie Kenny, an Alaska AFSCME member, says she'll be walking "to protest John McCain's nomination."

Denise Capeless, a New Mexico member of AFGE, will go door to door because Barack Obama is "our best hope" for the future.

Milwaukean Joel Allen, a member of the Painters and Allied Trades, will carry the word to union households about Barack Obama because "he'll bring out the better side of the country."

Everyone planning to take part in the Sept. 4 walks has their own reasons. But the more I hear from union members, the more I can boil them down to a few key points:

America is on the wrong track. To get our country back in the right direction, we need change from the Bush-McCain policies and priorities of the past eight years.

• Today's economy works for corporations and the rich, not for working families. We've got a crisis of disappearing jobs, stagnant paychecks, vanishing benefits and growing economic inequality. We have to rebuild an economy that works for all.
• America's middle class is under siege and the American Dream is becoming a distant fantasy.
• Unless we act, we'll leave our children with less than we have—less opportunity, less prosperity, less hope.
• Barack Obama is on our side. John McCain represents more of the same business as usual that working families cannot afford.

Thursday night, Sept. 4, we're strapping on our walking shoes and knocking on doors to make sure every union household member understands what is at stake in the November election.

Come on. Take a walk with us.

(Members of the local unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO: Get more information about walk locations near you and sign up at your local union, labor council or online.