Is Big Labor's power waning in U.S. politics?

The Associated Press

Hillary Clinton greets supporters at the AFL-CIO in Philadelphia.

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Is Big Labor's power waning in U.S. politics?

The Pennsylvania primary is more than a contest between Democratic Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. It's a showdown between two rival labor union factions and whether they can deliver for their presidential candidate.

Each Democrat has the backing of a well-financed coalition of unions determined to produce a crucial victory for its preferred candidate -- and in the process earn the enduring gratitude of the person it hopes will be the next president.

Clearly, Big Labor still has clout in Democratic politics. But how much clout? Although public-employee unions are thriving, private-sector union membership has been dropping steadily for more than two decades. Does the union label still matter in elections?

Ben likes: The changing union label

Bryan O’Keefe/The American

It seems clear that this year’s establishment candidate, Hilary Clinton, will not have organized labor rush to her rescue. Part of this may be political payback for her husband’s presidency. After aggressively supporting Bill Clinton twice, many labor unions felt that his administration either ignored them or endorsed legislation (such as NAFTA) that was inimical to union interests.

But there are more fundamental issues that explain labor’s shift. For starters, the leaders of today’s unions are different from those of yesteryear in personality and ideology. Consider Andy Stern, the charismatic president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and arguably the most important labor leader in America. Stern didn’t get his start in the union movement working at a steel mill; instead, he attended the University of Pennsylvania in the late 1960s and first joined the SEIU as a social worker. Unlike Meany or Kirkland, Stern is unabashedly liberal on nearly every policy issue. And when Stern was unhappy with the leadership of the AFL-CIO, he spurned the old labor line about “solidarity,” withdrew the SEIU from the AFL-CIO, recruited like-minded unions to do the same, and formed an entirely new labor federation, dubbed Change to Win.

Joel likes: Unions command renewed power in race

Pittsburgh Business Times

If the national news media had been right, the culinary workers' union would have swept Sen. Barack Obama to victory in Nevada's Democratic presidential primary.

That, of course, is not what happened; Sen. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote -- though not the most delegates to the party's national convention -- in the Silver State. But the attention paid to the culinary workers' endorsement of Obama suggests labor unions will play a more prominent role in this year's presidential election.

Nearly 14 percent of Pennsylvania workers -- 745,000 people -- are union members, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Union members don't vote in lock step, said Jack Shea, president of the Allegheny County Labor Council, but the figures are pretty high. About 70 percent of union workers vote how their union advises them, Shea said.