(The Kansas City Star posted the following column by Randolph Heaster on its website on June 10.)
KANSAS CITY — While most labor groups are waiting until later this year to make presidential endorsements, one major railroad union has backed U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt, a Missouri Democrat.
The Brotherhood of Maintenance Way Employees, which represents about 40,000 rail workers in the United States, made its endorsement last week.
“Dick’s demonstrated voting record on working issues is unsurpassed in the Congress of the United States,” said Mac Fleming, union president. “No other candidate, Democrat or Republican, can match his commitment or has demonstrated more support for working families.”
The union represents rail employees who build and maintain the tracks, bridges, and other structures on the railroads. The union has about 40,000 members in the United States.
Gephardt has also received endorsements from the Iron Workers union and the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers.
Gephardt is one of nine Democrats seeking the party’s presidential nomination. He has long been supported by organized labor.
“The fight for working families is in my bones,” Gephardt said in a conference call with Fleming last week. “It’s where I come from.”
Gephardt mentioned that his father’s wages were highest when he worked as a member of the Teamsters union.
“I’ve never forgotten what his involvement in a union meant for our family,” he said.
Gephardt criticized President Bush’s economic policies, pointing to the millions of jobs that have been lost during his administration.
The railroad union’s endorsement of Gephardt came on the day House Republican leaders dropped a bill that would have let private-sector employees choose between overtime pay and compensatory time off.
Although the measure said the choice between overtime and time off would be voluntary, critics of the bill said employers would use the law as a way to avoid paying overtime. Labor leaders also say the current federal law protects the 40-hour workweek by forcing employers to pay a premium if they want employees to work overtime.
Republicans have vowed to re-introduce the Family Time Flexibility bill.
“We fully expect that we’ll have another opportunity to pass this measure during the 108th Congress,” said Rep. John Boehner, an Ohio Republican who is chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee.
Gephardt said he would continue to fight the bill.
“The bill would have required employees to take comp time instead of overtime pay,” he said. “It’s another reason we need a president…who will stand up and fight for working families.”