Union GOTV: How Labor Unions Run Member Voter Mobilization

Union households delivered 21% of votes in Michigan, 18% in Pennsylvania, and 13% in Wisconsin in the 2020 election, according to AFSCME’s post-election analysis. Those margins didn’t come from national campaigns. They came from locals that built member contact programs and ran them consistently through election day. Your union GOTV program starts with the same asset: A membership list that no campaign can buy.

A union get-out-the-vote (GOTV) program is different from a campaign phone bank in one important way: Your member list is a built asset. Members have an existing relationship with the union, legal standing under FEC (Federal Election Commission) restricted class rules, and a documented track record of responding to member-to-member outreach. That’s an electoral advantage no outside campaign can replicate.

This guide covers how to build and run a union GOTV program compliant with FEC guidance and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA): How to source your member voter list, how to staff and run your phone and text programs, how to write a compliant script, and how to measure turnout lift after it’s over.

Why union member contact outperforms every other GOTV channel

The data on phone banking for GOTV is clear: Each conversation with a prospective voter increases their likelihood of turning out by 3.8 to 4.5 percentage points, according to research compiled by the Analyst Institute and the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale. That’s the baseline for any GOTV calling program, and it’s the benchmark the complete guide to phone banking for GOTV is built around.

For union programs, the lift is likely higher for one reason: Trust. A member receiving a call from another member of the same local isn’t receiving an anonymous campaign contact. They’re talking to a peer within an organization they belong to, on a question their union has a direct stake in.

The structural comparison matters too. Union members already reported lower non-participation rates in 2024: 7.9% of members didn’t vote compared to 12.2% of non-union workers, per Harvard Law School’s Center for Labor and a Just Economy. A union GOTV program targets the remaining gap, with callers who are already invested in the outcome.

UNITE HERE ran 10 million phone calls and knocked 3 million doors in the 2020 election cycle. Most unions don’t have that infrastructure. But the model is replicable at the local level: A clean member list, a trained caller pool, and a compliant script.

The legal framework for union GOTV programs

Two regulatory frameworks govern union GOTV: FEC rules on what treasury funds can support, and TCPA rules on how you can contact people by phone and text. Get both right before you start calling.

What the restricted class means for union GOTV

Under FEC guidance, a union may use treasury funds to conduct voter registration and GOTV drives aimed at its restricted class: Members, executive and administrative personnel, and their families. A GOTV drive aimed at the restricted class is not a contribution or expenditure if the drive is nonpartisan and includes no express advocacy for or against any candidate.

This means your union can pay for calling software, volunteer staff time, and voter contact lists covering your members and their households using treasury funds, as long as you’re driving nonpartisan participation, not telling members who to vote for.

Political Action Committee (PAC) funds are required only when you move beyond the restricted class or engage in express advocacy. Know your scope before the program launches.

Nonpartisan GOTV vs express advocacy

The FEC line between compliant GOTV and prohibited express advocacy is whether the contact tells the recipient how to vote. FEC guidance on conducting voter registration and GOTV drives draws the distinction clearly.

Compliant treasury-funded GOTV contact:

• Confirms the member is registered to vote
• Reminds them of the election date and polling location
• Helps them make a voting plan (where, when, how to get there)
• Asks if they need transportation or information

Not compliant for treasury-funded outreach:

• Endorsing a specific candidate or party by name
• Asking members to vote for or against a ballot measure
• Using language coordinated with a candidate’s campaign

Run every script draft through your labor counsel before it goes live.

TCPA considerations for union calling and texting

TCPA rules apply to automated calls and texts to mobile phones. For union GOTV programs, member contact under an existing membership relationship has stronger legal standing than contacting the general public. Your member database is your consent record.

For household extension, the standing is narrower. Apply the same caution you would for any non-member contact: Peer-to-peer texting, where a volunteer sends each message individually, creates significantly less TCPA exposure than automated broadcast texts sent without confirmed opt-in. When you have any doubt on a TCPA question, consult legal counsel familiar with labor organization compliance before the program goes live.

Building your union member voter list

Your member rolls are the foundation of your GOTV list. But a member roll and a voter contact list aren’t the same thing: Names and mailing addresses don’t give you phone numbers, voter registration status, or election history. Matching your member rolls to the voter file fills those gaps.

Matching your member rolls to the voter file

The voter file is the state’s official list of registered voters, including name, address, date of birth, and in most states, voting history. Matching your member rolls to the voter file gives you two things: Confirmation that your members are registered, and phone numbers sourced from voter file vendors.

Most unions working on electoral programs access the voter file through a state party committee, through a vendor like NGP VAN, or through a state labor federation with an existing data agreement. If your union is affiliated with a national or regional federation, ask the political department whether a member list match service is available before sourcing data independently.

The match process typically takes three to five business days. Plan to run it at least 30 days before election day so you have time to run a registration cleanup program before the deadline, if your state allows late registration.

Extending the list: household members under the restricted class

FEC rules allow union treasury-funded GOTV to reach the families of members, not just members themselves. Household extension, where the voter file match includes registered voters living at a member’s address, can meaningfully increase your total list size.

Handle household data carefully. Not every member’s family will have the same relationship with the union. Outreach should reflect that: Identify the call as coming from the union, and make the same nonpartisan voting plan ask that applies to the full program.

Running a union phone bank for member mobilization

A union phone bank for GOTV runs the same basic workflow as any calling program: Callers log in, receive contacts from a queue, follow a script, and record outcomes. What makes it effective is how you staff it and coordinate shifts. IATSE’s local union phone and text banking program is a practical reference for how a craft union runs member-to-member contact at scale.

Member-to-member vs volunteer caller pools

Member-to-member calling, where a union member from the same local or same trade calls a fellow member, produces higher contact and conversation rates than using outside volunteers. The caller ID recognition alone improves answer rates when members recognize the name or local number.

The trade-off is recruitment. Member callers require a targeted ask through your local’s communication channels: Steward networks, existing labor union member engagement programs, and direct outreach to active members. Give your member callers a defined shift length, a clear goal (conversations per shift), and a reason to feel accountable to the outcome.

Volunteer caller pools from allied organizations fill gaps when member capacity runs short. Keep them on lower-priority list segments so member callers stay focused on the highest-priority contacts.

Coordinating remote and in-person calling shifts

Remote calling has become the default for most union phone banks because it expands your geographic reach to members who can’t physically get to a union hall. What you need to make it work:

1. A calling platform that assigns contacts automatically and logs outcomes to a shared database, so supervisors can monitor contact rate in real time
2. A short training session built for GOTV callers, 15 to 20 minutes, before the first shift, covering the script, the platform, and how to handle questions you can’t answer
3. Defined shift windows with a clear start and end time, so callers aren’t self-scheduling into conflict with peak contact hours
4. A live channel for callers to escalate questions during a shift without stopping to call a supervisor

Your union communication strategies for ongoing member outreach apply directly here: The channels you already use to reach members are the same ones you use to recruit callers.

For in-person phone banks at union halls, coordination is simpler. But the same platform requirements apply: Every call logged digitally, every outcome recorded, real-time visibility for supervisors.

CallHub’s union calling and texting platform includes auto-assignment of contacts, real-time supervisor dashboards, and branching scripts so callers can navigate member responses without improvising answers to compliance-sensitive questions.

Text messaging your members for election day outreach

Text banking runs on a different timeline than phone banking. Text is most effective in the final 72 hours before election day, when a voting plan confirmation message lands better than a live call. In the week before, text is effective for event reminders (early vote locations, union-organized transportation) and low-barrier asks (confirm your polling place address).

Peer-to-peer texting vs broadcast SMS for union GOTV

For member lists with confirmed opt-ins, broadcast SMS works for election day reminders. For household extension lists where consent is less explicit, peer-to-peer texting is the safer format.

“CallHub peer-to-peer texting shined brightest when sharing information with voters,” says Shannon Goecke, Communications Specialist at the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). “Take event invites; no one wants to get a phone call from some volunteer saying hey, the candidate’s going to be in your town next week.”

For ready-to-use scripts at each stage, see GOTV text message templates. The full text sequence for the GOTV window:

1. Seven days out: Voting reminder and early vote information
2. Three days out: Voting plan confirmation (“Are you voting on Tuesday?”)
3. Election day morning: Polling place hours reminder with a reply-to-confirm ask
4. Election day midday: Follow-up to contacts who haven’t confirmed they voted

Writing a compliant union GOTV script

A compliant union GOTV script does four things: Identifies the caller and their union, establishes the nonpartisan purpose of the call, makes a specific ask around voting plan, and closes with an action the member can take immediately.

What a compliant script includes:

1. Identification: “Hi, I’m [name], calling on behalf of [union name].”
2. Purpose: “We’re calling to make sure all our members have a plan to vote in the upcoming election.”
3. Registration check: “Are you registered to vote at your current address?”
4. Voting plan: “Do you know where your polling place is? Are you planning to vote early or on election day?”
5. Logistics offer: “Can we help with anything that might make it easier to get there?”
6. Close: “Thanks, and remember polls are open [hours] at [location]. Is there anything else you need?”

What a compliant script must not include:

• Any reference to a specific candidate or party
• Any characterization of candidates or ballot measures
• Any union position on how members should vote
• Any language coordinated with a candidate’s campaign

Run every script draft through your labor counsel before it goes live. A one-hour legal review is far cheaper than a FEC enforcement inquiry.

Measuring your union GOTV program

A union GOTV program that doesn’t measure outcomes can’t improve. Track these five metrics across every program:

Turnout lift is the most valuable measure but requires a post-election voter file pull, which most states make available within 30 to 60 days of the election. Match your contacted member list against the post-election file to see who voted. The difference between contacted and uncontacted members is your program’s estimated impact — see post-GOTV analysis for the full measurement process.

Track contact rate and conversation rate in real time during the program so you can adjust. If contact rate drops below 15%, your list may need phone number refreshes or call window adjustments. If conversation rate is low despite successful contacts, your script may need revision.

Getting every union member to the polls, and knowing it worked

Union GOTV is most effective when it’s systematic: A clean member list matched to the voter file, callers who are members themselves, a nonpartisan script that stays inside the FEC’s restricted class rules, and metrics that prove turnout lift after the election.

The infrastructure that makes it work is the same infrastructure unions already use for calling for unions: A calling platform with contact queues, branching scripts, and outcome logging. What changes is the ask and the legal framework around it.

If your union is building this program for the first time, start with your member list and your calling platform. The voter mobilization layer runs on top of what you’re already doing for member engagement. For the full phase-by-phase system this program fits into, see the complete GOTV strategy guide, and explore how CallHub supports GOTV programs end to end, from list building to election-day reporting.

Build your union GOTV program with CallHub’s union calling and texting platform

Frequently asked questions

Mukundan Sivaraj

Mukundan (that's me!) is a writer at CallHub, an outreach platform that connects nonprofits with their supporters through voice and text messages. Mukundan’s focus on nonprofit technology and communication helps him show nonprofits, big and small, how technology can help elevate their cause.