WASHINGTON — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO each built their headquarters within a few blocks of the White House, but the nation’s largest business lobby and its biggest union seemed to work miles apart politically, according to a wire service.
Their new neighbor just might be bringing them closer together.
From steel tariffs to Alaskan oil drilling, Republicans and business interests are building alliances with union workers that could affect where and how organized labor provides support in the fall congressional elections.
The latest example came Thursday when the Chamber and AFL-CIO, traditional rivals, joined to lobby for an overhaul of immigration laws. Both want to win legal status for millions of illegal immigrants now working in the United States.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and Chamber President Thomas Donohue stood side by side to announce their coalition.
“A few years ago people would have said those people will never be on a platform together unless they’re arguing with one another,” Donohue said.
Immigration is one of several issues bringing together the Republican-leaning Chamber and the AFL-CIO, one of the Democratic Party’s key constituents.
They also want Congress and President Bush to provide health care coverage for the uninsured. On Wednesday, they jointly filed court arguments against new campaign finance restrictions.
Bush and labor unions also are finding more common ground.
A solid majority of union members backed Democrat Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election that Bush narrowly won.
Since then, Bush and unions have pushed to expand coal mining and open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, and have supported safety standards for Mexican trucks entering the United States in addition to tariffs to protect the U.S. steel industry.
Bush this week stood beside business executives and labor leaders to urge Congress to approve government-backed terrorism insurance to get construction projects rolling again.
The Bush administration has relaxed financial oversight of the Teamsters union that had been prompted by a corruption investigation. In a symbolic gesture, Bush reserved a seat for Teamsters President James P. Hoffa at the State of the Union address in January.
The efforts could have implications for the fall election for control of Congress and beyond, analysts said.
Unions, which have run millions of dollars in issue ads since 1996 aimed at unseating Republicans, may find their members less inspired to campaign for Democrats or against Republicans.
“What it mostly means is they don’t have a strong motivation to go out there and punish the Republicans because of the president,” said Charles Jones, a University of Wisconsin political science professor.
Some blue-collar workers, a constituency Ronald Reagan successfully courted two decades ago, agree.
United Auto Workers Local 228 member Marvin Montpetit of Warren, Mich., voted for Bush in 2000 and plans to vote for his re-election. While he backs the UAW leadership, Montpetit said the union and organized labor in general “blindly” support Democrats in most elections.
“If it’s a Democrat they vote for him no matter what he believes,” said Montpetit, a maintenance welder who supports Bush’s efforts to combat terrorism and who, like Bush, opposes abortion.
Chicago road-construction worker Brendan Gardiner, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 134 and a lifelong Democrat, said he voted for Gore and doubts he will back Bush in 2004; he is unimpressed by Bush’s overtures to labor leaders.
“It’s just window dressing and an attempt to take the wind out of our sails,” said Gardiner, who likes the way Bush has handled the war on terrorism but is more concerned about what he will do for unions.
An AFL-CIO survey after the 2000 election found 60 percent of members polled considered themselves Democratic, 22 percent Republican and 18 percent independent.
“The Democrats could do themselves some damage by allowing the president to usurp the party’s post-New Deal commitment to labor,” said Mark Petracca of the University of California, Irvine. “The one thing about labor is two things: A, people vote, and B, there’s money.”
Democrats scoff at the notion they’ll lose masses of union workers.
“I think the sad truth is the Republicans are happy to work with labor when it’s to their political advantage but they walk away from them on the issues they care about the most,” Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri said.
Neither the AFL-CIO’s Sweeney nor the Chamber’s Donohue thinks their alliances will change how union members vote.
Donohue said it is likelier to translate into legislation and changes in government regulation.
Sweeney said immigration might prove to be a campaign issue in Florida. Asked if he meant it could hurt the president’s brother, Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, whom the union and Democrats want to unseat, Sweeney smiled.
“We’ll see,” he said.