Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo
Joe Biden speaks to supporters during a stop in Philadelphia earlier today.
PHILADELPHIA – Since October 1, UNITE HERE hospitality workers have been going door-to-door in the largest city of this election’s key swing state. And since the beginning of the pandemic, most of them have been out of work. The union members’ unemployment rate peaked at 98 percent in the early days of the virus, and 75 percent are still out of work.
Renee Wilson, who leads one team of UNITE HERE canvassers, said that COVID-19 has been a major motivator for her. She told the Prospect that she contracted the virus earlier this year and was sick for three months. When the ambulance came to her house to take her to the hospital, her son told her that he feared he was never going to see her again. “That was the loneliest time of my life,” she said. Wilson, 49, said that she screenshotted her COVID-19 test results. “I look at them every morning,” she said, before she starts knocking doors. “That is my motivator.”
Like hundreds of other UNITE HERE members, Wilson has spent the past month walking the sidewalks. The members work six days a week, ten hours a day, hitting at least 75 doors apiece every day. The union has organized its members in Nevada, Arizona, Florida, and Pennsylvania to knock on doors. All of the canvassers are laid off, and through union funds and some additional fundraising, the union pays them to knock on doors—offering some financial support during this economic crisis. In Philadelphia, the canvasser force grew from 50 to 500 in just five weeks.
“It’s hard, grinding work,” said David Hawkins, a UNITE HERE executive board member. Like other members, Hawkins was laid off from his job, which was at the Sheraton Hotel in University City, a neighborhood of central Philadelphia.
The union estimates that its members have knocked on 2.5 million doors in its four targeted states this cycle—250,000 doors in Philadelphia alone. It also estimates that more than 25,000 Philadelphians who did not vote in 2016 pledged to vote this year after conversations with the union’s members. UNITE HERE has been the only union talking to people at their doorsteps (though recently, a few unions have done literature drops at people’s doors). Like the Biden campaign, which had—until recently—avoided door-knocking, most other unions have engaged in more digital organizing and less traditional campaigning.
UNITE HERE’s members are primarily Black and Latino, and several members who spoke with the Prospect said that they have canvassed in their own neighborhoods, as well as other parts of Philly. The canvassers wear “Take Back 2020” and “Kick Trump Out” gear supplied by the union.
Although polling has shown Biden has the lead in Pennsylvania, much will depend on whether the mail-in ballots are fully counted and on turnout in Philadelphia. The state was a battleground in 2016, when Hillary Clinton lost by the narrow margin of 44,000 votes, and Republicans have threatened legal challenges to counting the votes after Election Day. Both presidential campaigns have put forth their maximum effort in the state.
On the eve of Election Day, UNITE HERE Philly, which includes Locals 274, 634, and 54, held a socially distanced event in downtown’s Love Park. Warm beverages, Philly cheesesteaks, and live music helped rally canvassers for the push to the finish line. Some of the canvassers had come from locals in other states to help the final weekend’s efforts. Ernesto Middlehoff came from New York via Puerto Rico, where he’s a member of Local 610. He had helped organize workers to respond to the devastation on the island, he said—devastation that Trump had largely neglected. When he’s canvassing, he said, some people tell him they don’t like Biden. Typically, he responds, “I don’t like Biden either, I liked Bernie [Sanders]. But Biden is the only choice.” Middlehoff said he feels confident unions can push Biden to be more progressive.
Like Middlehoff, Briheem Douglas said that he also supported Sanders but now feels obligated to campaign for the Biden ticket. “At this point, we’re pushing for the best person for the job and I think that’s Biden,” Douglas said. “Biden delivers that despite his flaws.”
The union estimates that its members have knocked on 2.5 million doors in its four targeted states this cycle—250,000 doors in Philadelphia alone.
Douglas, born and raised in Philadelphia, has already lost someone to the pandemic. His niece was just 21 when she died this September, he said, leaving behind a one-year-old baby. Douglas’s sister is still in the hospital recovering. After his niece’s funeral, Douglas said that he decided to canvass to get Trump out of office. “I think the president has a way of taunting us,” he said, adding that the president didn’t take the pandemic seriously, despite the 230,000 lives lost. He has dedicated his canvassing to his niece, he said, adding that sharing his story has helped him convince voters to turn out to vote. “When I share my story, and my loss, these stories help shape a person’s decision,” he said.
Douglas had been part of the Philadelphia protests in the wake of Walter Wallace Jr.’s killing at the hands of police, and he said that Biden’s history in the Black community is hardly stellar. And that past—Biden’s support for “three strikes” laws, the 1994 crime bill, “super predators”—comes up when he’s canvassing in his own neighborhood. “A lot of people in my neighborhood talk about the laws he passed that hurt the Black community, but people responded to him apologizing and taking responsibility. That means a lot.”
THIS MORNING, UNITE HERE members gathered in four staging locations around the city for their final get-out-the-vote effort. The Prospect followed two members, David Hawkins and Otis Young, as they made their rounds. Like Hawkins, Young had lost his job during the pandemic. Wearing “Kick Trump Out” T-shirts and “Take Back 2020” beanies, the two crisscrossed streets in a southwest Philadelphia neighborhood. As the duo set out at 8:30 a.m., many people were still rubbing their eyes as they opened their doors. Others said they had already voted or were planning to vote later this afternoon. One woman said she had joined the line at her polling place at 7 a.m. when the polls opened, eager to cast her ballot for the Biden-Harris ticket.
Throughout the morning, Hawkins and Young ran into several other UNITE HERE members, including two who had driven down from Brooklyn. They also crossed paths with two Biden campaign canvassers—part of a door-knocking effort the campaign has only kicked off recently. (In contrast, the Trump campaign has operated as if it’s a normal year, knocking on doors and holding rallies that are likely superspreader events.)
Although most people were friendly, one resident grew irate when Young knocked, angry at how many people had already knocked on his door and threatening to spit on the next canvasser who came by. Hawkins said this kind of work requires patience. Every morning, he said, he has to gather himself to get ready for the long day ahead. But he said he’s gotten better at it over time, and that he’s learned the strategies to make it work.
At another address, a sticker in the window greeted Hawkins: “NOTICE,” it read, “This is a proud union household. No anti-union solicitation allowed.”
Both Hawkins and Otis grew up in Philadelphia and both had fathers who were union members. Hawkins, one of six children, said that his parents drilled into him that he must vote. He said he’s never missed an election. “‘Our people died for that right,’” he recalled his parents telling him. Although he grew up in Philadelphia, Hawkins said his father commuted to Wilmington, Delaware, every day for his job. Young’s father was born in South Carolina, but moved to Philadelphia. There, he joined a union after getting construction work.
When I asked if they felt confident that Biden would win, the two demurred. Hawkins recalled how he felt confident about Hillary Clinton in 2016. “One thing about America, they don’t want a woman in charge,” he said. This year, both said they felt good about Biden’s chances, but feared jinxing it. It’s all about Philadelphia’s turnout, they agreed.
This afternoon, the two will return to their route, trying to reach the people who didn’t answer the door and reminding them that they can still vote—so long as they’re in line by 8 p.m. tonight.
