Service & Solidarity Spotlight: AFL-CIO to Recruit 50,000 Election Protection Volunteers Across the Country

Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

The 30th AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention dug into the AFL-CIO’s Labor 2026 P.O.W.E.R. (Protect. Organize. Win. Engage. Right Now.) program, focusing on the AFL-CIO’s goal of recruiting 50,000 election protection volunteers across the country, particularly in communities of color and those targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These volunteers will staff polling locations and emergency hotlines in the lead-up to and on Election Day in November to ensure that no one is intimidated into not exercising their basic rights and fundamental freedoms.

“I stand here united with the House of Labor because we are all that we have,” said Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP. “We are all that we need for this fight. In this moment where so many people have lost hope and the ability to fight back and push back, it is our job in the House of Labor and as civil rights communities to rebuild the hope that’s necessary.” 

“Essential workers at every level of government have withstood the harassment and fought back through our unions,” said Elissa McBride, secretary-treasurer of AFSCME.