THERE WERE SEVERAL press reports in today's newspapers regarding my views about the Democratic Party and the AFL-CIO. These reports reflect a mixture of comments made in several different interviews. Let me be clear...

There's nothing I want more than a John Kerry victory. He's spent a lifetime fighting for good jobs and strong families, and a Kerry victory is the biggest goal of our union right now. We will spend $65 million and are sending over 2,004 workers to work full time in battleground states. We will continue to do whatever we can to make sure John Kerry is the next president of the United States. This is the largest non-party effort of any single organization in a national election ever. And we're not working this hard just because John Kerry has a D after his name. John Kerry is right on our issues and he's fought with us when we have needed him.

What I was saying yesterday is that when you accomplish a big goal like beating George Bush there can be a tendency to lose energy and unity and we cannot let that happen. Our party is at a time of extraordinary energy and unity and we have to make sure we hold on to that even after Senator Kerry beats Bush.

John Kerry's commitment to our union's signature issue - fixing health care in his first hundred days - makes it especially important that we keep up this fight even after November. Fixing the health care system in America is going to take the blood, sweat, and tears of all of us and we'll need the energy and unity we have now to do it.

George Bush has dug this country into such a terrible hole it is going to take the strongest labor movement and party possible to help John Kerry turn it around. When it comes to fixing America, we have to make sure we hold up our end of the deal even after Senator Kerry wins.

Posted by Andy Stern at 01:52 PM EDT