Why would a union endorse Christie over Buono?

[ProSense]

Construction union endorses Chris Christie for re-election

By Ned Resnikoff

The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) has announced an early endorsement for the re-election campaign of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican. At the governor’s first campaign event on Tuesday, LIUNA Eastern Regional Manager Ray Pocino touted Christie’s close relationship with the union, saying, “He has been in our union halls, on our jobs, meeting with our members and our contractors.”

LIUNA’s endorsement of Christie underscores a cultural and political divide which separates some of America’s trade construction unions from other institutions in the labor movement. Even as the Republican Party wages an all-out war on the vast majority of unions—going so far as to call for a national “right-to-work” law in its 2012 party platform—prominent GOP figures have maintained amicable relationships with construction unions.

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“I don’t think the labor movement is a monolith in New Jersey,” said Steve Wollmer, the communications director for the New Jersey Education Association, a teachers’ union. He said the Laborers have maintained a “very different” relationship with Christie than the often embattled public sector unions.

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John Wisniewski, chairman of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee, said LIUNA’s endorsement of Christie was likely “set in stone” when the governor reappointed Pocino as commissioner of Port Authority. ”While I am sure Gov. Christie is grateful for Mr. Pocino returning the favor, the electoral impact of LIUNA’s endorsement has historically been mixed at best,” he said in a statement.

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http://www.msnbc.com/the-ed-show/construction-union-endorses-chris-christie-fo

I came across it in this article someone just linked to.

Labor union officials say Obama betrayed them in health-care rollout

By Steven Mufson and Tom Hamburger

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Taylor and Terry O’Sullivan, president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, laid out their grievances this week in a terse letter to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), saying they are “bitterly disappointed” in the administration.

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Many labor leaders hope to make headway in talks with the administration and have opted to withhold sharp criticisms of the White House. AFL-CIO officials declined to comment, referring reporters to a resolution passed at the organization’s last convention that echoed the policy concerns expressed in the Reid-Pelosi letter.

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Union officials expect the health-care controversy to intensify a raging debate within the labor movement over how deeply labor should invest in Democratic Party candidates.

Already, the Laborers’ International Union has established warm relations with one potential GOP presidential candidate, Chris Christie, endorsing his 2013 reelection as New Jersey’s governor. The union gave $300,000 to the Republican Governors Association, now headed by Christie. And there have been preliminary discussions between labor officials and aides to the governor over a possible appearance by Christie at a union convention.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/labor-union-officials-say-obama-betrayed-them-in-health-care-rollout/2014/01/31/2cda6afc-8789-11e3-833c-33098f9e5267_story.html

[villager]

1. Why would a union endorse Richard Nixon?

The owners (of society), in not allowing the existence of a Labor Party as such, have been routinely able to get workers to, well, work against their own best interests.

Including at election time.

[ProSense]

2. Well, that explains it. n/t

[WinkyDink]

3. Construction in NJ? Like the Manzos? Gee, I'm surprised.

[waddirum]

4. Everyone's got a price n/t

[okaawhatever]

5. The same reason the police union did, because they had worked a back room deal that gave

them an extra couple hundred jobs. They didn't give their endorsement so much as Christie bought it. Of course, in all fairness, a labor union's purpose is to provide jobs with good pay and benefits. Christie gave that to them. How Christie accomplished it may have been unethical but it still benefited the union.