(The Boston Globe published the following editorial on its website on August 9.)
BOSTON — Eighteen months ago, Teamsters President James P. Hoffa sat in the House gallery as a guest of President Bush for his State of the Union Address. Today, he will formally endorse Democrat Richard Gephardt’s campaign for president, a symbol of the widening gulf separating Bush and organized labor. Labor leaders have reasons to be angry with the administration, which has sought to privatize federal jobs, waive and restrict union membership for federal workers, deny overtime pay to millions of white-collar workers, and promote tax cuts for millionaires at the expense of programs for working-class people. With the presidential election more than a year away, union leaders are vowing to mobilize the earliest and largest voter drive in labor history to defeat Bush. This week, the AFL-CIO summoned all nine Democratic presidential candidates to Chicago for a rare, joint appearance before the federation’s executive council, a sign of the clout the movement maintains despite declining membership.
Gephardt, the Missouri congressman, has won endorsements from 11 of the 65 international unions, while Teamsters Local 705 in Chicago has backed Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. In both cases, the affiliates unfortunately failed to heed the request of AFL-CIO leaders who asked them to hold off on making endorsements until after the primary season. Unions need to get organized before the real campaigning starts. It may make sense for the AFL-CIO to delay endorsing a candidate until after the primaries if a consensus cannot be reached to rally around a single candidate. In the two cases where the federation endorsed Democratic candidates before the primaries — Walter Mondale in 1984 and Al Gore in 2000 — both candidates won the nomination but lost the general election. The power of organized labor at the ballot box, especially in general elections, remains potent, despite the decline in union membership as a percentage of the work force. That percentage has fallen from 20 percent of the work force in 1983 to 13.2 percent today; yet the voting strength of union members continues to grow. Some 26 percent of union households came out to vote in 2000, compared to 19 percent in 1992.
Organized labor has few equals in getting its members to the polls, marshaling armies of volunteers to call voters, mail leaflets, and go door-to-door to rally support. Its challenge will be getting union members and candidates to speak with one voice about issues that matter to working families, from health care to retirement to job security. That’s the best way to ensure a reserve seat in the presidential box come the first State of the Union after November 2004.