Labor's big role in Denver (8/26/08)

The following story appeared today in Crain's Insider at Crain's New York Business

Labor's Big Role in Denver

Labor believes that its voters will decide the fall elections, and unions are building on that expectation at the convention-in particular with the New York delegation.

 Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union, hosted an "ice cream social" for Gov. Paterson on Sunday night that read like a Who's Who of labor leaders. Teachers union President Randi Weingarten, Bruce Raynor of Unite Here and Roger Toussaint of the Transport Workers Union were among those on hand.

 Unions plan to spend more than $200 million on this fall's races, hoping to turn out 13 million voters in battleground states. Appelbaum calls the campaign an "unprecedented union communications effort." Even so, the unions admit, they will have to struggle to persuade some members to vote for an African-American. While they believe that the economic message will help them overcome that barrier, their goal is simply to replicate their 2004 effort, when 65% of union voters supported the union-endorsed candidate.

 Of course, Sen. John Kerry lost that contest. But Appelbaum points to all of the new voters Obama has brought onto the rolls, saying, "If we keep our 2004 numbers, we win."

 In turn, unions believe that an Obama administration-and larger Democratic majorities in Congress-will reverse anti-labor Bush administration policies. They will also want universal health care and, most important, passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. At a big labor rally on Sunday, a video clip of Barack Obama saying, "If a majority of workers want a union, they should get a union," drew a huge cheer.

 While New York is not a battleground state, Democrats believe that a big union push for Obama will help them capture as many as four congressional seats and the majority in the state Senate.