WASHINGTON, Feb. 15, 2008
SEIU Labor Union Backs Obama
1.8 Million-Member Service Employees International Union Cites Senator As Candidate Of The Future
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Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks at his campaign rally at Memorial Hall in Racine, Wis., on Wednesday Feb. 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Journal Times)
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The sought-after endorsement is Obama's largest from organized labor, and gives him a powerful boost against rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the March 4 presidential primaries in Ohio and Texas.
SEIU president Andy Stern said the union has enormous respect for Clinton, but he said Obama "is creating the broadest and deepest coalition of voters we’ve ever seen."
“This is one of the most important presidential elections workers have faced," said SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger. "Families are struggling, we’re fighting two wars, and a majority of Americans are now worried that their children will be worse off than they are. Obama is the right person at the right time to lead the change we so desperately need in our country.”
SEIU backing is one of the most important labor endorsements available. The organization has donated more than $25 million, mostly to Democratic candidates, since 1989. In addition, the union has a powerful get-out-the-vote structure and has been courted by all the Democratic candidates since the beginning of the race.
SEIU has delayed an endorsement since September, when it had Obama, Clinton and other Democratic candidates speak to its members in Washington. It eventually narrowed the field to Obama, Clinton and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, but could not make a decision.
The union allowed its state affiliates to make endorsements, and many backed Edwards.
Edwards dropped out of the race just before the Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses on Feb. 5, leaving the field to Obama and Clinton.
The national endorsement trumps the endorsements offered previously by statewide SEIU organizations.
Union leaders decided after a conference call Thursday night to go with Obama.
Separately Thursday, Obama also won the backing of the United Food and Commercial Workers, a politically active union with significant membership in the upcoming Democratic battlegrounds.
The 1.3-million member UFCW has 69,000 members in Ohio and another 26,000 in Texas.The food workers also have 19,000 members in Wisconsin, which holds a primary Tuesday.
The union is made up of supermarket workers and meatpackers, with 40 percent of the membership under 30 years old. Obama has been doing especially well among young voters.
With an SEIU endorsement and the United Food and Commercial Workers' backing, Obama would only need to pick up one more union endorsement to be eligible to collect the Change to Win labor federation's support. There are seven unions in the federation, and it would take endorsements from at least four of them to make the federation consider a joint endorsement.
Obama was endorsed in January by UNITE HERE, which along with SEIU and the United Food and Commercial Workers, would give him three of the seven member unions. The Teamsters, the Laborers' International Union of North America, and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America have yet to endorse a candidate.
The seventh union, the United Farm Workers, endorsed Clinton in January.
Obama also was endorsed earlier this month by the Transport Workers Union and the National Weather Service Employees Organization.
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See all 67 Comments(CNN) -- NAACP Chairman Julian Bond''s decision to weigh in on the Democratic Party''s conundrum when it comes to seating delegates from Michigan and Florida has created a firestorm of discussion on blogs and talk shows, and frankly, I''m still unclear as to what his intent was.
Gee Roland, I think his intent is to see that all the people of the USA have their votes counted.. Just because your a very vocal supporter of Obama, doesn''t mean that all Black''s have to follow your lead.. Some have supported Hillary Clinton all along, and will help put her in the White House.. The DNC must seat both States, or pay to hold another Election.
Great-grandfather
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Posted by shouaxx at 03:31 AM : Feb 15, 2008
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He ISN''T a Republican to start with! He has an Idea that isn''t as OLD as a wooden bucket. There has been many times in our history that the American People have been inspired by a canidate. Inspired enough to give him a chance to lead. I don''t know if this man will make it to the Nomination but if he does we ALL should support and help him. He''s our best.. no he''s our ONLY hope because all the other canidate has to sell is the same tired old trash that has pulled us down to third world status. We MUST turn it around and we must do it NOW!!
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Posted by ontheleft at 01:48 AM : Feb 15, 2008
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Union support is VERY important and you are wrong about the membership backing the canidate. THEY the members pick who the Union supports, guess you didn''t know that. The members have historically backed the canidate endorsed by their union by better than a 70% margin.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/02/obama-wins-endo.html
Posted by shouaxx at 03:31 AM : Feb 15, 2008
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Most recently Obama voted in the Senate to uphold the rule of law for Telecoms who had broken the law to spy on Americans.
Hillary didn''t vote. But most of her supporters voted to give the Telecoms immunity from the law.
Either Telecom immunity is Hillary''s position or she doesn''t have much influence with her own supporters.
Anyway, you can find out more about what he has done and what he proposes to do on Obama''s web site.
But their Fuhrer Andrew Stern sure knows how to go golfing with Democratic candidates and hand them handsome paychecks culled from millions of American workers - including scores who deeply resent the money taken from their paychecks to fund candidates whom they despise - and NOT to protect or provide benefits for workers.
SEIU 660 should be outlawed in this country for its innate Fascism and real betrayal of workers - but hey, we''re a Democracy, and the Libs would be crying in their fruit juice if we did.
Too bad both of them won''t move to Iran - they''d be better off there.
I used to be a member of SEIU and you aren''t in any position to speak for how it''s members feel.
Unions are elected by their members to advocate on their behalf and most of those hard working people understand that giving money to Democrats will lead to better conditions and pay and a better life for themselves and their family.
Do you feel the same outrage for multinational Corporations who pay off politicians of both parties to screw working people?
Your comments about Obama, the SEIU is just a bunch of nonsensical jibberish that makes you sound like a total idiot.
The DNC and the Obama campaign have suggested another election and Hillary isn''t having it. Like Sadaam and Hugo Chavez, she prefers elections where she''s the only one on the ballot. That''s why she agreed that the delegates should not be seated originally if the Primaries were moved up then reneged in an effort to run unopposed.
Her position is not grounded in principle; her original position was.
Slimey is as slimey does.
He''s the only one running who was right from day 1 on Iraq. He''s the only one running who realizes that the leadership of Al Quaeda is in Pakastan, not Iraq or Iran.
Other posters have listed all the pieces of legislation that this "junior Senator" has successfully co-sponsered on a bipartison basis,
so I won''t repeat the laundry list.
Those who claim he hasn''t done anything or doesn''t stand for anything should go to his website and read the pages and pages of specifics. You won''t find any more specific and sensible proposals on the sites of the other candidates.
Maybe you should all withhold judgement until you educate yourselves some more.
I''m surprised they didn''t crawl into the gutter and endorse McCain. The Teamsters, in the past, endorsed that great Trade Union Labour Leader, Richard Nixon....
But, all in all, Obama, with his crack pipe and Che Guevera posters, is at least a smidgin better than Hillary Clinton...for a people reduced to picking through the refuse for a leader.
After Yale grad. Hilary Clinton flunked the D.C. bar exam for the second time (where the pass rate is 65%), she went to Arkansas and to it%u2019s bar exam (where the pass rate is 80%) and passed. She then became a lawyer with the Rose law firm which represents corporations. She still has ties there. Mrs. Clinton sat on Walmart''s board for 6 years and never once spoke out while Walmart battled their employees. She was still on that board during the class action lawsuit that women brought against Walmart. In video taped board meetings, she sat mute on the issues. She was a token woman on their board.
Something tells me that you''ve never gotten your hands dirty given yuor virulent Union bashing.
The Union is follwoing the will of its membership and has to choose between 2 candiates to their liking.
They are acting now in order to hopefully help to avoid what most in our party want to avoid. That would be a brokered Convention controlled by special interests that would circumvent the will of the public, just the kind of politics you so often and so stridently claim to oppose.
Because superdelegates will make up around 20 percent of 4,000 delegates to the Democratic convention in August, Clinton and Obama are aggressively wooing the more than 400 superdelegates who haven''t yet made up their minds. Since 2005 Obama has given 52 of the undecided superdelegates a total of at least $363,900, while Clinton has given a total of $88,000 to 15 of them. Anticipating that their intense competition for votes in state primaries and caucuses will result in a near-tie going into the nominating convention, the two candidates are making personal calls to superdelegates now, or are recruiting other big names to do so on their behalf. With no specific rules about what can and can''t be done to court these delegates, just about anything goes.
Obama, who narrowly leads in the count of pledged, "non-super" delegates, has doled out more than $694,000 to superdelegates since 2005. Of the 81 elected officials who had announced as of Feb. 12 that their superdelegate votes would go to the Illinois senator, 34, or 40 percent of this group, have received campaign contributions from him in the 2006 or 2008 election cycles, totaling $228,000. In addition, Obama has been endorsed by 52 superdelegates who haven''t held elected office recently and, therefore, didn''t receive campaign contributions from him.
President Daniel Ortega, who led the 1979 revolution in Nicaragua, says Barack Obama''s presidential bid is a "revolutionary" phenomenon in the United States. Ortega led a Soviet-backed government that battled U.S.-supported Contra rebels before he lost power in a 1990 election. It took only one and a half hours for Ortega to reveal his trump card for restoring dignity in Central America''s poorest country: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. So far that means a mix of nationalism, demagogy and some old-fashioned conservative monetary policies, which include increasing tax collection at home by more than 50 percent.
SO WHAT!! How many did he actually get passed. All legislatures do this but the proof is in the pudding. You wanna compare scores on that one? GO HILLARY!!
Obama supporters would love to compare scores on that one. She''s been in the Senate longer but has far less to show for it. Hillary supporters go on and on about her great accomplishments yet never seem able to name what they are.
Who cares what Ortega says about anything? He probably thinks Hillary is great for running unopposed in Michigan.
not hard to judge Lewis by the content of his character.....he has none!
Posted by sjbj2322 at 01:21 PM : Feb 15, 2008
Thanks for the info sj.....we''re getting a different story here in GA. I''ll wait and see how it plays out before commenting further. Thanks again.
I''ve been voting since I got the right back in 1972 and I''ve yet to find the perfect candidate who always votes the way I would. I certainly wouldn''t include votes for partial birth abortion as a reson to support a candidate.
I also wouldn''t include sending our troops into a needless war without an after combat plan and after refusing to support an initiative to preface their involvement upon the completion of international inspections. I guess neither one of us can perfectly claim the moral high ground based upon who we support.
infidel,
The super delegates like Kennedy and Lewis are under pressure from their constituents and from the Campaigns. The smart ones are sitting on the fence while the foolish ones are allowing themselves to be played like everyone(like Lewis).
Obama has done alot (as a senator) to help quell the situation in Darfur... something that''s been ongoing and worse than what was going on in Iraq. Difference is that there''s no OIL there, so America turns a blind eye to it. As for his connections to Radical Islam, he''s lived a majority of his life in America... to say that he''s got "radical" connections is like saying a person of german decent has Nazi connections... it''s bogus.
I''d like to have ANYONE (the clintons included) bring up some dirt on Obama that he hasn''t already brought up himself. Something that hasn''t been uncovered. Something that''s fact, not fiction.
Obama appears to have sided with opposition leader Raila Odinga, head of the same Luo tribe to which Obama''s late Muslim father belonged. Obama''s older brother still lives there. Abongo "Roy" Obama is a Luo activist and a militant Muslim who argues that the black man must "liberate himself from the poisoning influences of European culture." He urges his younger brother to embrace his African heritage. Beyond family politics, these ties have potential foreign policy, even national security, implications. Odinga is a Marxist who reportedly has made a pact with a hard-line Islamic group in Kenya to establish Shariah courts throughout the country. He has also vowed to ban booze and pork and impose Muslim dress codes on women %u2014 moves favored by Obama''s brother. With al-Qaida strengthening its beachheads in Africa %u2014 from Algeria to Sudan to Somalia %u2014 the last thing the West needs is for pro-Western Kenya to fall into the hands of Islamic extremists. Yet Obama interrupted his New Hampshire campaigning to speak by phone with Odinga, who claims to be his cousin. He did not speak with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki.
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I''m only too happy to bash crappy trade unions that sold out the Union movment...the kind of "I''ve got mine, Now you go to ''ell" unionism" that we''ve seen in the auto and steel industry. Industrial Unionism such as that practised by the IWW, I support.
And yes, I''ve worked in a paper mill before...in the digester room...didn''t like it one bit...a nasty, nasty soul destroying place not made any better by the fact that I was reading THE GREENING OF AMERICA at the time. I''ve also moved furniture for HAVERTY and was once a pin boy...but the nastiest job of all was the job that my hero, Al Bundy, the man who scored four touchdowns in a high school game, performed...I once sold women''s shoes....:)
So you believe that traveling to foreign countries as
First Lady qualifies as experience to run the country?
Let me guess, you are a woman who ardently wants a woman to be the first president; you are not aware of the major issues facing this country; you are content to have four more years of the Clinton twins.
Sorry, it just does not add up. If you don''t want to vote for Obama, I suggest you vote for the Green candidate instead.
Sheeeeesh, gimme a break.
I took a cheap shot on the dirty hands comment so I''ll retract it and acknowledge that you''ve paid your dues.
I''m not one one to wax romantic about the entire union movement. My Dad used to be the chief engineer at a factory where I worked. He told me that my Union steward was being paid by management to screw us. Even when the natinal union is aboveboard you can be stuck with a corrupt local and vice-versa.
However, I do believe that unions are generally more often than not a better alternative than unrepresented workers. I currently am employed by our lovely North Carolina state government. As i''m sure you know we are one of only 2 states where collective bargaining is illegal(the other being Virginia). My job is under the control of the fat cats down on Jones Street at the general Assembly. Unions look better to me all the time.
North Carolina needs to change their "First in Flight" to "First in Fascism"...because that is exactly how Hitler''s unions worked and how the Corporatists created fake unions to draw workers away from honest-to-God unions...like the IWW...
The Trade Unions, eventually got the tacit acceptance of the Corporations because their leaders were only too glad to take a pat on the head from the bosses and get their help in destroying Industrial Unionism and in doing so they compromised Unionism to death.
The Sicilian Mafia originally was used by the landowners to oppress the workers...its no wonder that organized crime and trade unionism go hand in hand.
Governor Weasley...LOL!!!
You''re right. The state employees are essentially represented by lobbyists at the GA who beg every year at budget time for our little pittance. Eevryone gets the same little chunk of coal regardless of performance or need. They''re trying to get away from that with an effort to "band" jobs to allow for performance and education and experience differences but I''m not really putting much faith in that pipedream.
It could be worse, we could be working for Smithfield Packing where the real swine wear suits and ties.
These animals are grain-fed GMO corn...Smithfield gets the cost-savings on production...and the low wages for its workers while the taxpayers get to bear the costs of clean ups and the long term damage from polluted wells.
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