(The Associated Press circulated the following story on August 21.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Dick Gephardt picked up his 12th union endorsement Wednesday in his campaign to win the full support of the AFL-CIO in the Democratic presidential contest.
The Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers union, with 300,000 members, announced the endorsement in a statement. A conference call with Gephardt and the union’s president, Boyd Young, was planned later Wednesday.
“Dick Gephardt has a long track record of supporting workers’ issues,” Young said in the statement. “Time and time again, he has proven his support for the American worker, whether it was concerning unfair trade agreements or health care for all.”
The Missouri congressman is a longtime ally of organized labor and would seem to be the automatic choice for an endorsement by the AFL-CIO, which has 65 affiliate unions with 13 million members. He is the only one of the nine Democratic hopefuls to win endorsements from international unions.