NEW BRUNSWICK – Veteran labor leader and political organizer Hetty Rosenstein wants to make sure her fellow Democrats secure actual human contact as they seek to connect with voters in the lead up to the Nov. 8th midterm elections.

Retired as the state director of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), but always politically engaged, Rosenstein appeared Saturday at the ROEvember pro-choice rally in Montclair, and Tuesday in support of workers at the HPAE’s rally at Rutgers.

Rosenstein didn’t cite any overtly cookie cutter-only campaigns, but in the interest of this election’s significance, she underscored the need for extra effort.

“Every single touch we make is a good thing so I don’t want to suggest that sending out a postcard is a bad thing to do, but what we know as union organizers is you have got to have one on one contact,” Rosenstein told InsiderNJ.

Through the years, the labor leader organized some of the state’s most effective and in-your-face campaigns, including a statewide protest of Senate President Steve Sweeney’s (D-3) Path to Progress tour; and some of the most effective backroom deal-making with power players for better union benefits, which she secured with Governor Phil Murphy before she retired.

Labor organizing works, Rosenstein said, because it hinges finally on “one union member knocking on the door of another union member.”

“On some level that’s what we need,” she added.

Does that mean she’s not feeling it yet, or seeing it on the part of those tasked with getting out the battleground vote in New Jersey in places like CD-7 or CD-11?

Not exactly, she said.

“But you’re coming off of COVID [when people didn’t go out and campaign face to face], and now is the moment,” Rosenstein told InsiderNJ. “Now is the moment these doors get knocked. Go do it, right now. Right now.”