(The Chicago Tribune posted the following article by T. Shawn Taylor on its website on August 4.)
CHICAGO — Saying working families can’t afford four more years of George W. Bush, organized labor is mapping out what it says will be the largest voter drive in its history to defeat the president in the 2004 election.
The campaign will roll out this week with television ads in Iowa and New Hampshire–key primary states–and an announcement of a new coalition of labor and constituency groups that will coordinate voter-education efforts.
And on Tuesday night, the executive council of the AFL-CIO will host a candidates forum at Chicago’s Navy Pier, where members will grill the nine Democratic hopefuls on their platforms.
“The Reagan years were rough, but it was nothing like this,” said Frank Powers, a labor consultant. “The Karl Rove (Bush’s chief adviser) crew understand how important the labor movement is to opposing their economic policies. And if they can cut them off at the knees, they will. And that’s what they’ve been doing.”
There’s no question that the Bush administration has tested labor’s mettle with its policies on union organizing and attempts to overhaul overtime pay rules. But some question whether labor–with its history of infighting and scandals involving top union leaders–will be able to present a united front in support of the Democratic nominee–whoever that will be.
Bob Bruno, professor of labor studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said conflicting agendas often make it impossible for labor to speak in a unified voice.
“The AFL-CIO is supposed to try to bridge those differences. But if their partners don’t want to play nice, there’s very little they can do,” Bruno said.
Already, splits have occurred. Nearly a dozen unions have publicly endorsed Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.), though the federation asked its membership to hold off until after the primary. Meanwhile, Teamsters Local 705 in Chicago, the union’s second-largest branch, on Monday announced support for Sen. John Kerry.
Labor’s own have only added to its woes.
More than two years ago, the 500,000-member Carpenters Union pulled out of the AFL-CIO, complaining about the umbrella group’s inefficiencies and lack of reform. The Carpenters’ departure drained the AFL-CIO of needed funds, and political clout.
The scandal at Ullico Inc., the union-owned insurance and investment house, also was a public relations setback, centering on special insider stock deals for union executives.
Ullico has since cleaned house, but the controversy became fuel for critics of unions’ wrongdoing.
But with all its shortcomings, labor has proven quite effective at getting voters to the polls, claiming 26 percent of union households came out to vote in 2000, up from 19 percent in 1992.
Though some Democrats have distanced themselves from labor for fear of being labeled a special-interest candidate, the Democrat who becomes the beneficiary of labor’s support will inherit an army of workers who will mail out voter leaflets, cold-call voters and go door-to-door to rally support for the Democrat.
“No question candidates need money to run,” said John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, the umbrella organization for 65 unions representing 13.5 million workers. “We don’t think our strength is in our money, our strength is in our people power.”
Unions now represent 16.1 million public- and private-sector workers, or 13.2 percent of the American work force. Labor has been spurned to act by what union officials call the most blatant attacks on the labor movement and worker protections in the in the post-war era.
Soon after taking office, Bush did away with new ergonomics standards under the Clinton administration. He invoked the Taft-Hartley Act to order striking West Coast workers back to work last November. The Labor Department imposed strict new financial reporting standards on unions in the wake of corporate scandals.
At February’s Executive Council meeting, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao read off a list of union convictions in response to why the new standards were needed, infuriating union leaders.
And, in what labor leaders call the latest assault on working families, the Labor Department is attempting to overhaul overtime eligibility rules in a way that union leaders say would deny millions the right to overtime pay.
“The AFL-CIO is a block from the White House. It might as well be in Omaha, Neb., in terms of its access,” said Harley Shaiken, a professor of labor and politics at the University of California at Berkeley. “Labor feels frozen out. Their agenda is not the agenda of this administration.”
Labor leaders will be looking closely at the candidates voting records on pro-labor and pro-worker legislation. But the ability to raise money will also be a factor, Powers said.
Teamsters Local 705 in Chicago said Kerry’s electability is one of the reasons they endorsed him over Gephardt, for instance.
“What it boils down to is that folks will be examining very carefully, very coldly, who can win,” Powers said. “Unions and working families have been battered so badly by this administration that they desperately want to win back the White House.”
Following Tuesday night’s “Working Families Presidential Forum,” Executive Council members plan to meet to discuss whether to endorse a candidate in the fall. The forum will be aired live on C-SPAN at 7 p.m.
In the five most recent presidential elections, the AFL-CIO has only twice endorsed a Democratic candidate before the primaries. In both cases–Walter Mondale in 1984 and Al Gore in 2000–the candidates won the nomination but lost the general election.
But with stakes so high, labor has no choice but to do what it’s known for–and hope for the best.
“If you look at past elections, the labor movement has been the most effective grassroots organization that supports Democratic candidates,” said Rick Hurd, a professor of labor studies at Cornell University. “It should be the Democrats that leads the campaign. But in terms of getting an early start, (labor) should be out there in front.”
(Tribune staff reporters Jeff Zeleny and Steve Franklin contributed to this article.)