(CONNECTICUT) AFL-CIO prez leans toward Dodd

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.newbritainherald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18685886&BRD=1641&PAG=461&dept_id=595283&rfi=6

By: RICK GUINNESS, Herald staff

No national union, including the AFL-CIO, has endorsed any candidates, state AFL-CIO President John Olson said Thursday. But Olson, who just returned from Chicago, where he watched the presidential debates, said he personally wants to see U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd elected president.

Considering that U.S. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are way out in front of the rest of the pack in terms of polls - and campaign fundraising - Olson admits it would be difficult for Dodd to win the nomination, let alone the election.
Olson said his main goal is to promote legislation that establishes the right for unions to organize, which is "the only way we can exist."

Traditionally, the unions have been big supporters of the Democratic Party. But to enact the type of pro-union legislation he wants, the unions need Republicans, he said.

Unions have declined in power during the past 30 years, from a time when they represented some 34 percent of the workforce to present day, when only 12 percent are organized.

It is still better to be in a union than not in a union, Olson said, because capitalists are still out to squeeze labor in any way possible.

There is still a huge disparity between what union employees earn and what nonunion employees earn, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment, and Earnings: The average union worker's median weekly income is $740. His non-union counterpart makes only $587.

FULL story at link.