Labor for Bernie Means Headaches for Hillary

[n2doc]

Sanders supporters want to slow the Democratic endorsement train.
by Josh Eidelson


The 35-person executive board of the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees voted on Oct. 23 to endorse Hillary Clinton for president, the 10th national union to do so. “AFSCME members want the candidate who will be the most effective champion for working families and who will be able to deliver a victory in this critically important election,” Lee Saunders, the union’s president, said in a statement. The vote, he added, was based on polls of AFSCME’s 1.6 million members. “The majority of the people I talk to definitely are for Hillary,” says Julie Schultz, an Iowa parole officer who serves as president of her local.

Yet the vote did nothing to squelch enthusiasm among AFSCME members for Clinton’s chief rival for the Democratic nomination, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. An hour or so before the AFSCME press release went out, a group calling itself Labor for Bernie e-mailed reporters a petition from AFSCME members asking the union to delay an endorsement. “An undemocratic decision at this time will only confirm what so many members already believe: that AFSCME is not an organization run by and for its members,” it said. Similar sentiments flooded AFSCME’s Facebook page.

Labor for Bernie is loosely organized, earnest, and fueled by the sense that there should be a contest for the Democratic nomination. It was created after Sanders announced his candidacy last spring by longtime organizers including Rand Wilson, who directs policy and communications for Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 888 in Massachusetts. Labor for Bernie offers online tools to link Sanders supporters by union or region as well as templates for talking about his candidacy. “This doesn’t take a lot of work,” Wilson says. “People are hot to trot.”

So far the group has secured endorsements from two dozen union locals and federations, and it says it drew 17,000 union members to a September conference call with Sanders. “The rank-and-file members that I know are all voting for Bernie,” says Illinois mechanic Al Wagner, a member of the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers, which has endorsed Clinton.

more
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-11-12/labor-for-bernie-means-headaches-for-hillary

[Admiral Loinpresser]

1. KnR! n/t

[Fawke Em]

2. It seems odd to me that any labor union would endorse anyone but Bernie.

But, then, this primary contest seems to be all about not letting Clinton fail again, so the DNC and TPTB are purposely interfering to clear the way for Mrs. Inevitable.

[SoapBox]

5. Seems that the leadership is trying to plow the road for the Coronation but...

as they do it, they are also burying the members as they plow by...and that type of stuff really ticks off the little guys!

[in_cog_ni_to]

7. I agree. It's just the Union bosses voting against their members.

Hillary can have the handful of bosses. Bernie will get all the members' votes. Millions of them. The workers don't support Hillary. The majority supports Bernie.

PEACE
LOVE
BERNIE

[SoapBox]

3. People are hot to trot!

Damned correct!!!

It's amazing how "leadership" has been showing itself to be so closely aligned with the Entrenched Establishment Club and thinking they can get away with making endorsements that they decide upon.

Uhhhh...seems they forgot about the membership.

Well there are more membership votes than there are "director" votes.

Go membership voters!

[Faux pas]

4. Kickin'

[Enthusiast]

6. Kicked and recommended!

I was union back in the day.