AFL-CIO: Unions will impact 2008 race By JESSE J. HOLLAND, AP Labor Writer

AFL-CIO: Unions will impact 2008 race By JESSE J. HOLLAND, AP Labor Writer
2 hours, 1 minute ago



CHICAGO - Union membership is down. The labor movement has split in two. Conservatives control the White House, the Supreme Court and, until last year, Congress.

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Yet AFL-CIO leaders say things are looking up as the nation's largest labor federation heads toward the 2008 presidential elections.

"We're stronger in many ways," said AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, in Chicago for the federation's executive council meeting and Tuesday forum with the Democratic presidential primary candidates.

Organized labor played a large role in Democrats taking over Congress in the midterm elections, Sweeney said, and is trying to hold on to that momentum going into 2008.

"What we see going on now leads us to believe that this will probably be the most ambitious mobilization in the history of the labor movement," Sweeney said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Workers are angry about how they're being treated, and they want to see a change."

Things have not gone well for unions since the last presidential election.

In 2004, 12.9 percent of the labor force were union members. In 2006, that number dropped to 12 percent, according to the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics. More than one-third of U.S. workers, about 35 percent, were union members in the mid-1950s.

In addition to the dropping membership numbers, the labor movement has now split in two. Seven unions consisting of 6 million members bolted the AFL-CIO in 2005 to form the group Change to Win. Those unions will meet in Chicago in September.

The AFL-CIO has 55 member unions and represents 10 million workers. They also have an affiliate, Working America, who represents 1.6 million non-unionized workers.

President Bush and Republicans in Congress have thwarted much of organized labor's initiatives, including a bill that would have made it easier to organize U.S. workers.

But organized labor is heartened by the fact that they helped push Democrats to take over the House and the Senate in the 2006 midterm elections. Unions spent more than $66 million in that election cycle — a record total — most of it going to Democratic candidates.

"It has given the members purpose, and they see what kind of power they can exert in the political system," said Gerald W. McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. "When you put it all together, the effort in 2008 will be larger than it was in 2004, larger than it was in 2006 and more effective than both."

The AFL-CIO hopes to show off its strength by packing Soldier Field, the home of the NFL's Chicago Bears, for an outdoors presidential forum on Tuesday. All the major Democratic presidential primary candidates will be there, and labor officials are busing in union families from all around for the event.

The weather forecast for Chicago Tuesday is for scattered thundershowers. Just in case, the AFL-CIO has ponchos for the crowd, and the candidates are set to speak on a covered stage.

"A couple of people have asked me already this morning what will happen if it rains," said Michael Carrigan, president of the Illinois AFL-CIO. "The answer is: The show goes on."

The AFL-CIO's executive council will meet Wednesday to decide whether to begin a primary endorsement process immediately or wait until later. The AFL-CIO requires a two-thirds vote for an endorsement, a threshold no candidate met during the 2004 Democratic presidential primary.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., was endorsed after he became the party's nominee.

Unions are split on whether they should wait until after the primary to make endorsements.

The International Association of Firefighters — whose endorsement helped save Kerry's 2004 primary campaign — plans to endorse in September regardless of what the AFL-CIO does. "I made it clear to the political committee today," said Harold A. Schaitberger, IAFF president. "We're going to make a decision."

But the American Postal Workers Union will not endorse anyone in the primary, said William Burrus, the group's president.

"I'm a believer and my union is a believer that we've got to wrest control from the capitalists from the Republicans, from their friends in the White House as well the Congress," Burrus said. "It's unimportant who it is that does that. I don't want to play favorites in the primary."

At least one union plans to endorse in both the Republican and the Democratic primaries. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers will do so after a late August debate, a first in the union's 118-year history.

Democrats should not take their endorsement for granted in the final race, said Tom Buffenbarger, president of the machinists' group. IAM is one of the nation's largest trade unions, representing more than 720,000 active and retired members.

Thirty-five percent of IAM members are registered Republicans.

"We want to encourage our Republican members to get involved and active in their party and find the kind of candidate who looks out for working people, has a vision for working men and women, not just the oil barons and the Wall street tycoons," Buffenbarger said.

Sweeney noted that 20 percent of AFL-CIO members also are registered Republicans, and they invited GOP presidential candidates to participate in the forum but got no response. The machinists "have the right to do what their membership wants them to do," Sweeney said.

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On the Net:

AFL-CIO: http://www.aflcio.org