Unions bitterly divided in Democratic race

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-unions13jan13,1,1083216.story?ctrack=3&cset=true

A tight Clinton-Obama contest has raised the costs and stakes for organized labor. And no place higher than in Nevada.
By Tom Hamburger and Maura Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
January 13, 2008

LAS VEGAS -- The tight race between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama has opened surprisingly deep and bitter divisions in the ranks of organized labor, as rival union leaders fly planeloads of last-minute volunteers into key states, accuse each other of trying to disenfranchise members, and even launch open attacks on rival Democratic candidates.

In Nevada, which holds its caucuses Saturday, unions backing Clinton are crying foul because some caucuses will be in casinos and hotels where a pro-Obama union's members predominate -- helping that union's members and potentially discouraging others.


Win McNamee / Getty Images
A ROUND FOR HER: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton holds up the boxing gloves AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee gave her along with the government workers union’s endorsement.

Meanwhile, inside the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which has endorsed the New York senator and is leading the charge for her in Nevada, several officers are protesting the union's decision to run negative ads against the Illinois senator.


A TREAT FOR HIM: Sen. Barack Obama makes a campaign appearance in Las Vegas before the Culinary Workers of America. The 60,000-member hotel, casino and service workers union is supporting his candidacy. More than 13% of Nevada’s workers belong to unions.
(Charles Rex Arbogast / Associated Press)
January 11, 2008


"This race has taken on more intensity than we have seen in the past," said Karen Ackerman, AFL-CIO political director and a veteran of numerous presidential campaigns. Other union leaders lament the vitriolic conflicts they say are developing between unions and worry that the effects could linger into the November campaign.

Organized labor is probably the single-most important part of the Democratic Party's election machinery, providing thousand of campaign workers and millions of dollars for sophisticated get-out-the-vote efforts and others. Though unions have divided over presidential candidates in the past, labor insiders say the closeness of the Clinton-Obama race has made this year's divisions unusually bitter.

It has also made the process much more expensive and thus raised the stakes for union leaders and their members.

FULL story at link.

[99th_Monkey]

1. How come this article fails to mention John Edwards at all?

mirroring MSM's studious "Edwards who?" painting him as invisible treatment.

Edwards got NV Communications Workers endorsement
http://www.johnedwards.com/news/press-releases/20071206-nv-cwa/

and nearly got the Culinary Workers as well, which this article at least mentions
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/7804.html

[no name no slogan]

2. Labor hasn't been united since the 1970s

Hell, the Teamsters even endorsed fucking REAGAN in the 1980s-- and he's the one who broke the air traffic controllers union.

At least nowdays labor doesn't endorse Republicans at the national level anymore.

[demosincebirth]

3. Very seldom at the local level, either

[no name no slogan]

4. My union does an okay job

It mostly endorses Democrats, although it will endorse the occasional labor-friendly Republican in state legislative races.

But you can't expect a lot of progressive activism among a bunch of technocrats and mid-level administrators, though.

[brentspeak]

5. Why don't they unite behind Edwards?

The best possible candidate for the American working person.

[no name no slogan]

6. Kucinich carries a union card

He's the only one of the Democratic candidates who is a union member, BTW.

[sufrommich]

7. Which Union is he a member of?

[no name no slogan]

8. International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)

It's a union for communications/broadcasting workers. Kucinich has a master's degree in communications and has worked in television.

From his congressional bio page:

Kucinich is a current member of The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States (IATSE), an AFL-CIO affiliated union.