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THE WHYS AND WHATS OF UNION ENDORSEMENTS

Posted: Sunday November 4, 2007

*The Whys and Whats of Union Endorsements *

by DHinMI

Sun Nov 04, 2007 at 04:14:38 PM PDT

As someone whose identity is strongly informed by his family’s close and devoted relation to organized labor, and who has spent significant parts of his professional career working for or in collaboration with organized labor, I enjoy when organized labor becomes a “hot topic” at Daily Kos. I’m heartened when one of my fellow contributing editors posts on a labor topic, like Trapper John’s explanation of the broader context of the UAW strike against General Motors, or MissLaura’s backgrounder on the impending strike by the Writers Guild of America (W.G.A.). I like it when Kosmopolitans wade in to the discussion threads and ask great questions, provide insight and valuable information, and express solidarity with the striking workers, who sometimes even include some of our own (as is the case with Kosmopolitan and W.G.A. member chumley).

Of course, this being a political blog, the most interesting thing about labor unions for many readers is the political and electoral activities of labor unions, in particular their endorsements of presidential primary candidates. Almost exactly four years ago, I wrote a piece providing some background on labor unions and the kinds of calculations that go in to their candidate endorsements. As we’re now in the final two months before the start of the primary voting, it’s seems a good time to revisit an excerpt from that 4 year old post, and then discuss some of the reasons why union endorsements are valuable to campaigns and what unions do with their members and toward the general public to help elect their endorsed candidates.

[Originally published November 9th, 2003]

The starting point for any discussion of union endorsements is to remember that unions are democratic organizations led by officers accountable to the members who voted them in, either through direct vote (like the Teamsters, Steelworkers, Laborers, etc.) or representative elections (like most other international unions). Therefore, these decisions aren’t just about who is chummy with which pol; there are consequences to how officials use their union’s prestige and material resources, and union officers who make repeated mistakes have to deal with the repercussions in their next election.

The second thing to keep in mind is that unions don’t exist and thrive so they can do politics, they do politics so they can exist and hopefully thrive. Electoral politics is but one part of a union’s activity, and if it’s the most visible activity to people outside the union, it pales in importance to protecting a member being treated unfairly by her supervisor, or to embodying a collective voice for bargaining for a fair wage and benefits, or to act as an instrument of wider social change in areas beyond electioneering, like raising funds for the United Way, supporting other causes in the U.S. like civil and human rights, and making common cause with workers around the world.