April 10 (Bloomberg) -- As Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama vie for voters in Pennsylvania's presidential primary, another rivalry is playing out between two of the state's largest unions.
In Clinton's corner is the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the third-biggest U.S. union, with about 95,000 active members in Pennsylvania and 1.4 million nationwide. Obama has the support of the Service Employees International Union, the second-largest in the U.S., which represents 1.9 million janitors, security guards and nurses, and has 68,000 active members in the state.
``It's the gunfight at the O.K. Corral,'' said Gerald McEntee, president of AFSCME, the largest member of the AFL-CIO federation.
The showdown between the unions is more bitter than the contest between Clinton and Obama. McEntee and SEIU President Andrew Stern, onetime allies who in recent years have been locked in turf wars and arguments over the future of organized labor, each began their union careers in Pennsylvania, and the battle has become personal.
Ohio Win
``We kicked Andy's ass from one end of Ohio to the other, and in Texas, too,'' McEntee, 73, told an AFL-CIO executive committee meeting in San Diego on March 5, the day after New York Senator Clinton, 60, revived her candidacy by beating Illinois Senator Obama, 46, in the Ohio and Texas primaries.
Stern, 57, declined to comment on McEntee's remarks. ``It's beneath him,'' said SEIU spokeswoman Michelle Ringuette.
The rivalry between the two unions is playing out on the ground in Pennsylvania, the fourth-largest labor state, as both sides mobilize to get voters to the polls for the April 22 primary.
``The union support in the state is kind of split down the middle,'' Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey, a Democrat who endorsed Obama last month, said in an interview.
``It's one thing to get people to show up for a rally or an event. It's another thing to say `every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I'll be in a room making phone calls and every Saturday I'll be knocking on doors,''' Casey said. ``Whatever union is able to commit that kind of time by their membership will have that much more impact.''
Fastest-Growing
SEIU, the country's fastest-growing union, has spent at least $1.2 million in Pennsylvania, with most of that money funding door-to-door efforts, according to Federal Election Commission filings. AFSCME has spent at least $329,000 in the state, records show. Both unions declined to comment on spending.
SEIU plans to knock on 100,000 doors throughout the state, according to Eileen Connelly, executive director of the union's Pennsylvania State Council.
Get-out-the-vote efforts for both Clinton and Obama drew between 150 and 200 volunteers this past weekend and both AFSCME and SEIU said they expect as many as 1,000 members to help in the days before the primary.
Along with SEIU, Obama has endorsements from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Unite Here, representing hotel, restaurant and textile workers, the United Food and Commercial Workers and the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers.
AFSCME is working for Clinton alongside the American Federation of Teachers, the Machinists union and the National Association of Letter Carriers.
AFSCME Divisions
AFSCME and SEIU have similar demographics: Both are about 60 percent female and 16 percent black. Yet SEIU may be more united than its larger rival; Obama last week won the backing of an AFSCME affiliate, the Philadelphia district of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees.
SEIU, however, does have some weaknesses in the state, according to AFSCME, mainly because its membership is concentrated around Philadelphia.
``They don't have the kind of staff we do throughout the entire state,'' said David Fillman, executive director of AFSCME's district council office in Harrisburg.
AFSCME officials also said SEIU and other Obama backers failed to organize early, which explains why their candidate didn't win in union-heavy Ohio.
``SEIU was very late in endorsing,'' said Cathy Scott, president of AFSCME district council 47 in Philadelphia. ``AFSCME endorsed Senator Clinton way before the Iowa caucuses'' on Jan. 3.
Ohio Lesson
SEIU officials said there would be no repeat of Ohio in Pennsylvania.
``We learned we needed to do more on educating voters and go further into the suburbs,'' said Anna Burger, SEIU secretary- treasurer and head of Change to Win, a federation representing about 6 million workers that Stern helped form after SEIU and other unions left the AFL-CIO in 2005.
Two of Pennsylvania's most influential unions -- the United Steelworkers and the United Mineworkers -- haven't endorsed a candidate.
For now, Clinton is favored to win in Pennsylvania. Regardless of the outcome, however, the personal animosity between the union leaders may have consequences in the general election, even though both Stern and McEntee have vowed to unite behind the Democratic nominee.
``McEntee's comments are not helpful, either for Hillary Clinton or for the Democratic nominee in the fall,'' said Greg Tarpinian, executive director of Change to Win.
For now, McEntee is showing no sign of letting up.
``All the good things Andy Stern does and knows, I taught him,'' McEntee said. ``The other things, I stay away from.''
No comments:
Post a Comment