Culinary stakes out its own political turf (wounds inflicted during Nevada’s presidential caucus)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jun/13/culinary-stakes-out-its-own-political-turf/

By Michael Mishak

Fri, Jun 13, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Despite calls for unity at the Nevada AFL-CIO’s political convention this week, the state’s labor movement will not be speaking with one voice in November.

The Culinary Union, the labor federation’s largest affiliate, will separate itself from the AFL-CIO’s coordinated political efforts and instead act on its own in the general election — making its own endorsements and running its own political program.

In fact, the union went to great lengths in advance of this week’s convention to make clear that its name — and that of its sister local, the bartenders union — should not be attached to any AFL-CIO endorsements.

Until now, the Culinary has worked with the AFL-CIO in Nevada, even though on the national labor stage, Culinary is associated with Change to Win, a rival labor organization.

The local split is the latest evidence that wounds inflicted during Nevada’s presidential caucus in January are festering, not healing. The development also stands in stark contrast to Big Labor nationally, which has called for unions to unite behind Democratic Sen. Barack Obama.

Unions represented by the nation's two largest labor coalitions, AFL-CIO and Change to Win, chose sides in the primary — and at times campaigned bitterly against each other on behalf of their candidates. Obama pulled most of his union support from Change to Win, a labor federation that includes Culinary parent Unite Here.

FULL story at link.