Labor Unions and the Democratic Party [View All]

[sherilocks]

Labor Unions hold a large number of delegate seats in the DNC and DEC and have lots of power to control what goes on on inside the party. They give huge contributions and I, personally, welcome and support unions. Unions also contribute in the form of volunteer staff. But, not all union members vote Democratic, far from it. Another "but" is the number of delegates, who have already formed policy within their union ranks, heavily weights the policy or candidates they favor.

What I am about to say is anecdotal and only an observation , so if someone has more substantive information, I would like to hear it. I noticed that when the unions supported Dean for president, it was all good news. When the unions stopped supporting Dean, the party elders began the anti-Dean drumbeat.

Here in Florida, in the governor's race against Jeb Bush, the teachers union and possibly others, decided to run a candidate against Janet Reno. The candidate, selected by the union, had poor political skills, and lost mightily to jeb.

Also, because the number of delegates to the state DEC, conventions, DNC, etc. is limited, union delegates squeeze out the possibility of other non-union rank and file Democrats from getting representation in the party.

How can we increase the number of progressive delegates from the individual rank and file Democrats without hurting our relationship with labor unions?