Christian Science monitor: Smaller but savvier, labor draws '08 Democrats

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0925/p01s02-uspo.htm

from the September 25, 2007 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0925/p01s02-uspo.html
Smaller but savvier, labor draws '08 Democrats
Candidates are wooing the union vote more aggressively than anytime in the past 20 years.
By Ariel Sabar | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Washington

Think "American Idol: Organized Labor Edition."

To reach the final round of judging for an endorsement from the Service Employees International Union, Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama had to survive a series of trials: videotaped interviews with the rank and file, speeches to the union's political wing, submission of a detailed healthcare plan, and "Walk a Day in My Shoes" events in which six Democratic hopefuls shadowed a janitor, teacher, nurse, or other union worker.

The hunt for the union's endorsement culminates Tuesday with speeches at a Chicago convention and is part of an open and aggressive courtship of labor unseen on the campaign trail for more than two decades, labor leaders and analysts say.

Senator Obama joined striking workers outside a Chicago hotel in July and later led Nevada culinary workers in chants of "Fired Up, Ready to Go." Senator Clinton told a firefighters' union in March, "It is absolutely essential to the way America works that people be given the right to organize and bargain collectively." Mr. Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina, has campaigned for minimum-wage initiatives in a half dozen states and said at the AFL-CIO debate last month that he had walked 200 picket lines in the past two years.

"There's little question that all of the candidates are much more open, aggressive, and comfortable talking about and embracing the labor movement," says Harold Schaitberger, president of the 281,000-member International Association of Fire Fighters, which recently endorsed Sen. Christopher Dodd (D) of Connecticut. "In the past, candidates would be more inclined to talk about 'worker issues,' 'rights of employees,' 'the middle class.' The word 'union' or 'labor movement' – that wasn't as much in their vocabulary."

Stephanie Mueller, a spokeswoman for the 1.9 million-member Service Employees International Union, says, "We've never had this kind of experience before with candidates."

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