Labor flexes muscle as '08 race heats up

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/09/09/news/business/34-labor.txt

Labor flexes muscle as '08 race heats up

By McClatchy Newspapers
PITTSBURGH - The thousands of union members who marched through downtown Pittsburgh on Labor Day symbolize a movement eager to reassert its strength at the polling place as well as in the workplace.

Unions' share of the work force has been declining for decades, and the presidential season presents an opportunity for labor groups to change that.

The most obvious way is by supporting candidates sympathetic to their agenda, ones who will push laws, for example, that make organizing easier. But the other part of a chicken-or-the-egg equation is that politicians are more likely to support organized labor's issues if unions show they can turn out voters and that there is a political price to be paid for ignoring their agenda.

As with almost everything else surrounding a hyper-accelerated nominating season, the efforts to court unions began early.

Last week, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., won the support of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers along with that of the United Transportation Union. In a surprise, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., picked up the endorsement of the International Association of Firefighters, and former North Carolina senator John Edwards won the backing of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners.

While there is debate on the power of endorsements, the efforts of the candidates suggest they still matter. It seems as if would-be presidential candidates have been courting union leaders since the last election ended. If anything, those early results suggest there is no consensus "labor candidate," in the Democratic field.

FULL story at link.