WOOING LABOR

WOOING LABOR
By Dick Meister

Don’t make the mistake of judging organized labor’s strength by numbers
alone – by the fact that unions now represent only about 12 percent of the
country’s workforce. Certainly those who are seeking the Democratic Party’s
presidential nomination know better.

The Democratic candidates are waging extraordinary campaigns to try to win
union endorsements -- campaigns that are at least as big as any such
labor-wooing campaigns ever waged. And in years past, mind you, unions
represented a much greater share of the workforce.

The candidates are quite aware that whatever their membership numbers,
whatever the proportion of workers they represent, unions have developed
political muscle that can very well mean the difference between victory and
defeat for many candidates.

Unions proved that decisively in helping Democrats regain control of
Congress in last year’s midterm elections. It was by far the most
extensive, most expensive and most successful political campaign in labor
history. Unions spent more than $66 million, and put more than 100,000
members to work registering and turning out voters.

One-fourth of all voters were union members, and they favored Democratic
candidates – all of them union-endorsed -- by a margin of three-to-one. The
Democratic majority in congressional races overall was nearly seven million
votes, and union households provided 80 percent of that margin.

Unions are gearing up to spend even more money on the presidential race
next year than they did on the congressional races and put twice as many
volunteers to work.

“Our members are building an army to make more calls, knock on more doors,
and turn out more voters than ever,” declared Gerald McEntee, head of the
AFL-CIO’s political committee.

The Democratic candidates obviously believe that labor will do what it
promises to do, and each of the candidates obviously wants labor to do it
for them. That could cinch a victory for the Democratic nominee, whoever it
may be.

In presidential elections over the past several decades, Democratic
candidates tended to remain a bit distant from unions, which were frequently
branded as “special interests” or as being too far to the left of popular
centrist Democrats such as Bill Clinton.

It was relatively rare, in fact, for candidates to talk directly about
unions or about the labor movement at all. They talked about “workers” and
“employees,” but not very often – if at all – about their unions.

But now it’s Hilary Clinton, for example, telling a recent union meeting
that “it is absolutely essential to the way America works that people be
given the right to organize and bargain collectively.”

The Democratic candidates have been walking with striking union members on
picket lines, as well as addressing union meetings and stressing that
their voting records and other previous political activities have been
pro-labor.

Some of the candidates already have won endorsements from particular unions
within the AFL-CIO, but the key endorsements from the big labor federation
itself and from its largest affiliates will come later. And the campaigning
for the endorsements will continue to be among the most active political
campaigning in recent years.

That labor is being so steadfastly wooed is an extremely important political
development. It could benefit millions of Americans -- union and non-union
members alike -- by helping elect a president who, unlike the virulently
anti-labor George Bush, undoubtedly would be sympathetic to the unions
that helped elect him or her and support at least part of their progressive
agenda.

Copyright © 2007 Dick Meister

Story ID:	3021
Written by:	Dick Meister (bio, link, contact, other stories)
Story type:	Musings, Essays and Such
Location:	Washington DC USA
Year:	2007