Bernie Sanders
Related: About this forumMachinists Union Members Outraged Over Hillary Clinton Endorsement, Say They Want Bernie Sanders
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) announced Friday that it would endorse Hillary Clinton as its preferred Democratic presidential candidate. The machinists are now the third AFL-CIO union to endorse a candidate, following National Nurses Uniteds endorsement of Senator Bernie Sanders four days ago and the American Federation of Teachers Clinton endorsement on July 11.
The IAM will not sit on the sidelines while this fight is so clearly underway, said IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger in a press release. Hillary Clinton has been a strong supporter of this union for years and she is now the target of unprecedented attacks, financed on a scale never seen before. The time to help is when help is needed most, and we intend to do just that.
The IAMs justification of their endorsement this early in the presidential race mirrors the remarks made by AFT president Randi Weingarten shortly after her unions endorsement. If you want to shape something, you get in before the primaries, she said. Like the AFT, the IAM endorsement was based largely on the results of an internal survey of membersa method that some members of the union have questioned.
I cannot describe how disappointed I am with the IAM endorsing Hillary, says Al Wagner, a journeyman auto technician and member of IAM Automotive Mechanics Local 701 in Chicago. The IAM is a great union and I am very proud to be a member. But the leaders went about this endorsement the wrong way.
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http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/18321/bernie_sanders_machinists1
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Because after you've given the candidate what they want, you have more leverage!! Because reasons!!
retrowire
(10,345 posts)that they generally hate this union for not listening to them.
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)Between Hillary ..... and .Mike Huckabee
Later they changed it to Obama.......
Snotcicles
(9,089 posts)LWolf
(46,179 posts)I rarely vote for a candidate my union endorses in the primary.
That's because the national union leadership is more likely to endorse the perceived "front runner" in hopes of having some kind of influence after the GE, and the perceived "front runner" is usually a mainstream corporate candidate that I don't support.
It's counter-productive, imo, for unions NOT to endorse the strongest labor candidate. It means that their membership often ignore that endorsement, diminishing it's importance.
I'll bet there are a lot of machinists, and AFT members, who will not be voting Clinton in their primaries. I don't know who the NEA will endorse this time around, but if they choose HRC, I won't be backing that endorsement. As a matter of fact, I wrote my union president the day after the AFT endorsement to explain this to her.
djean111
(14,255 posts)Looks like that is what is happening. Somehow I doubt that the endorsement will translate into votes. Just bad publicity.
i am, of course, happy when Bernie gets endorsements, but I have never in my life voted for someone because of endorsements. Not about to start now.
roguevalley
(40,656 posts)they did not. I wasn't asked. Hillary doesn't give a fig about unions and the membership needs to kick these bastards in the ass for this.