"Despite conflicts, labor unions back Obama" October 07, 2012| Brian C. Mooney
Organized labor, its historic alliance with the Democratic Party strained in recent years, has returned to basics in this political season.
After feuding openly with President Obama, unions are steadfastly supporting him, albeit in many cases with smaller budgets than in past campaigns and a model that emphasizes on-the-ground organization and support for legislative allies at the congressional and, in some cases, even state level. That will mean fewer costly television ads bankrolled by union members’ dues before the Nov. 6 election.
“We’re not trying to compete with the Karl Roves of the world and raise money for TV ads; it’s not feasible, and it’s not our philosophy,” said Mike Podhorzer, political director of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation with more than 12 million active and retired members. “What we do is encourage members to get involved in the ground game, expanding our walks, calls, social networking, and using the Internet.”
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Labor’s arm’s-length alliance with Obama is the result of clashes over foreign trade agreements, his negotiations with Republicans on budget cuts and deficit reduction, and the selection of North Carolina, a so-called right-to-work state with the lowest union membership rate in the country, as the site of the Democratic convention.
And the home base of Bank of America.
“It’s not been all sweetness and light for labor with Obama, but he’s been their guy,” said David Gergen, an administrator and professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government who served in Republican and Democratic White Houses. “They’ve got a vested interest in his success.”
The Obama campaign is relying heavily now on its vaunted ground game, Gergen said, and “labor has always been important for Democrats in terms of the ground game. The question is whether they’ll be as helpful as in the past.”
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With public employee rights under attack by Republican officials in states like Ohio and Wisconsin in the past year, AFSCME, the nation’s largest public employee union with 1.6 million active and retired members, has been a major player opposing the efforts with mixed results. Last fall, Ohioans overwhelmingly approved a ballot question to repeal a law weakening bargaining rights of public employees. In June, however, an attempt to recall Wisconsin’s Republican Governor Scott Walker, a leading advocate for rolling back public employee rights, fell far short.
See: Wisconsin Recall Recall
Other major labor players that are not part of the AFL-CIO are also supporting Obama’s reelection, including the National Education Association, the largest teachers union with 3.2 million members, and the 2.1-million member Service Employees International Union, which has been among the most politically active labor unions in recent years....
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Related: "The president was scheduled to launch a lucrative and celebrity-studded fund-raising swing to Los Angeles and San Francisco on Sunday and Monday."
Also see: The Last Gasp of Labor
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