Why Unions Aren't Uniting Behind Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-08-03/why-unions-aren-t-uniting-behind-hillary-clinton-or-bernie-sanders

Josh Eidelson

In the failed fight to stop fast track, organized labor spoke—largely—with one voice. The main U.S. union federation, the AFL-CIO, announced a temporary freeze on PAC contributions, and its affiliate unions mostly complied. Unions across the industry spectrum warned Democrats against siding with Obama on trade. Some big unions were quieter than others, but none defected to shield the president. “It was a unifying moment,” says Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

The same can’t be said for labor’s presidential endorsement process. “Some want to wait, some want to move,” International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers President Tom Buffenbarger told Bloomberg last month. “Some are just so pissed off that they just don’t want to do anything.”

This week, Democratic 2016 hopefuls Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, Lincoln Chafee, and Jim Webb will court organized labor at the Iowa AFL-CIO’s annual confab. Last week in Maryland, Sanders, O’Malley, and Webb—along with prohibitive frontrunner Hillary Clinton and Republican Mike Huckabee—each met privately with the union leaders who comprise the national federation’s executive council. Labor leaders “were encouraged by our discussions,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a July 30 statement.

But divisions abound. A month ago, after the AFL-CIO’s South Carolina and Vermont chapters passed pro-Sanders resolutions, the AFL-CIO sent a memo reminding its state subsidiaries that (unlike the AFL-CIO’s affiliated unions) they aren’t allowed to make their own presidential endorsements. Leaders of affiliate unions who sit on the executive council tell Bloomberg that Trumka also urged them to hold off on making presidential picks until the council got to meet the candidates July 29 and 30. (The AFL-CIO declined to comment about private conversations.) “He’s trying to actually do what he did in trade, and that is to keep the unions together, to use their most effective voice collectively,” National Nurses United Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro told Bloomberg last month. But given the autonomy of the individual unions, she said, “He’s got the power of persuasion—that’s the only thing he has.”

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