Obama Wins Endorsement of Food Workers Union and May Add Service Employees

[babylonsister]

Food workers union backs Obama

Obama Wins Endorsement of Food Workers Union and May Add Service Employees

NEDRA PICKLER
AP News

Feb 14, 2008 17:32 EST

Sen. Barack Obama has won the backing of the United Food and Commercial Workers, a politically active union with significant membership in the upcoming Democratic battlegrounds.

The 1.3-million member UFCW gives Obama an organizational boost in vital upcoming contests, with 69,000 members in the Buckeye state and another 26,000 in Texas. The two states have a large number of delegates and are where Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton hopes to stop Obama's winning streak on March 4.

The food workers also have 19,000 members in Wisconsin, which holds a primary Tuesday.

The union is made up of supermarket workers and meatpackers, with 40 percent of the membership under 30 years old. Obama has been doing especially well among young voters.

"Senator Obama's message of changing hope into reality has inspired our members, particularly our young members, across the country," Food Workers President Joe Hansen said in a statement in which he also lauded Clinton's tireless efforts on behalf of workers.

more...

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/02/food_workers_union_backs_obama.php

[MadBadger]

1. Ben Smith says he will get both.

[babylonsister]

2. That's a lot of people! Gobama! nt

[Arugula Latte]

3. This is great, coming before Wisconsin and Ohio and Pennsylvania.

:bounce:

[HeraldSquare212]

4. Wow - that's like the third union endorsement I've seen today for Obama.

Nice.

[Moh96]

10. what are the other 2?

[HeraldSquare212]

12. Oops - these are the same, except this additional one from earlier today:

om the Washington Post:

Union Backing Obama

The National Weather Service Employees Organization, which represents forecasters in 122 weather stations and National Hurricane Center employees, this week endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president.

Dan Sobien, president of the union, said Obama has introduced bills to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina and to "make the federal government respond better when the next catastrophic storm hits."

Leaders of two other large federal unions -- the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union -- are talking to their members about whether to endorse a presidential candidate.

Link (scroll down for info): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

[MadBadger]

11. No, I think you are seeing the same ones

[Thrill]

5. This is huge news

[Moh96]

6. Great news, thank you for that

[GumboYaYa]

7. SEIU is big for states like Ohio and TX.

Those guys have the best phone banks and field operations that I have seen at any union.

[GumboYaYa]

8. SEIU is big for states like Ohio and TX.

Those guys have the best phone banks and field operations that I have seen at any union.

[AtomicKitten]

9. This is huge.

[mod mom]

13. LA Times reports 70,000 in Ohio & 26,000 in Texas (many of them Latinos)!

Food workers union endorses Obama

Move comes as a blow to Hillary Clinton and more union endorsements may be enroute.
By Tom Hamburger, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
2:30 PM PST, February 14, 2008
Columbus, Ohio -- The United Food and Commercial Workers Union, one of the nation's largest labor organizations and a force in battleground state politics, voted today to support Sen. Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee for president.

The move is a blow to New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose campaign had also sought the union's backing. The UFCW is a prize because it is one of the largest in the country and is particularly influential in states with upcoming primaries: Ohio,Pennsylvania, and Texas.

In Ohio, the union has 70,000 members who work in supermarkets and food processing.

That makes the union more influential than even the United Steelworkers, which now represents 56,000 workers in the state. Both campaigns have been aggressively courting the steelworkers union nationally, because of its influence in all three states. But as recently as this past weekend, the steelworkers union leadership decided to remain neutral.

In Texas, the UFCW has 26,000 workers, many of them Latinos working in the meatpacking industry.

-snip
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-ufcw15feb15,1,1142903.story