US unionist tells workers to fight for PM's return AN AMERICAN trade union leader has implored Australian unionists to draw inspiration from Barack Obama's re-election, insisting a campaign aimed at workers could keep Julia Gillard in The Lodge. In a pep talk to the Australian Workers' Union national conference on the Gold Coast, the president of the United Auto Workers, Bob King, urged union representatives to inspire members to get out and fight before the election. "All the pundits were saying in the year and a half before the election that President Obama could not win," Mr King said. The only way that President Obama won was because we built a movement of workers ... and we came together and we beat the odds and we re-elected President Obama. Mr King said his union hatched a plan to contact each member at least 17 times in the lead-up to last year's US election, relying on delegates at the local level to spread the message to workers. We won an amazing victory and re-elected President Obama, so I know that you can do the same. The vote of confidence came on the same day the latest Fairfax/Nielsen poll showed support for Labor had slumped to 30 per cent and Tony Abbott had firmed as the preferred prime minister. While the AWU national secretary, Paul Howes, proclaimed the union's "110 per cent" support for Ms Gillard, he also admitted the carbon tax issue had been difficult for the AWU. "We didn't lie or pretend that carbon pricing was something we could stop ... We walked out at the end knowing that we struck the best possible deal for our members," he said.