Hillary Clinton Is Pulling Away From Bernie Sanders With Union Endorsements (Hillary Group)
....Progressive as her 2016 platform may be, Clinton doesn't exactly have a long history of pumping her fist on the picket line with her union brothers and sisters. Her squishiness on fast-track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership bothered many union officials, though she has since come out against the president's trade deal. And while service-sector unions are rallying around a national fight for a $15 minimum wage, Clinton has voiced her support for the movement but not the number. She is instead advocating for a more moderate proposal of $12.
Nonetheless, the unions that have so far declared their backing for Clinton represent a majority of the unionized workers in this country. They include the two primary teachers unions -- the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, which together boast 4.6 million members -- as well as the 1.6 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. In addition to those public-sector unions, Clinton has nabbed the endorsements of the carpenters' union and the machinists' union, among others....
One of the largest unions in the country, the 2 million-member Service Employees International Union, could announce its endorsement as early as this week. If the union backs Clinton, as many labor insiders expect it will, her campaign could credibly say she is organized labor's consensus candidate. Such an endorsement would sting for Sanders. He has been arguably the most prominent backer in Washington of the Fight for $15, which has been agitating for a higher minimum wage through fast-food worker strikes. The Fight for $15 is an SEIU campaign.
Unions have plenty at stake in the 2016 elections. They need a functioning and union-friendly National Labor Relations Board, which only a Democrat in the White House can guarantee. The GOP-led Congress has sought to roll back labor-friendly reforms by the NLRB as well the Labor Department, which would be much easier to do under a Republican president. And unions continue to fend off state-level attacks on collective bargaining, with more states than ever now being right-to-work.
The more unions rally around a single candidate, the stronger that candidate will be heading into a general election, the thinking goes. The need for unions to have a Democrat in the White House, whoever it may be, is a boon to Clinton as the front-runner....
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/564677a2e4b045bf3def3588?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000016§ion=politics via Huffington Post
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