http://www.suntimes.com/news/sweet/385406,CST-NWS-sweet15.articleObama clear: He's pro-union
May 15, 2007
BY LYNN SWEET Sun-Times Columnist
TRENTON, N.J. -- He won't shop at Wal-Mart. He is for a law making it easier for people to join unions. If president, his appointees would be "sympathetic" to labor. He said he walked picket lines while a state senator.
It's "been a long time since we had a president who said unions are a good thing," said White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) at an AFL-CIO presidential forum, a stop in a day with three New Jersey fund-raisers and endorsements from two New Jersey mayors.
After previous lackluster appearances before union groups, on Monday, Obama made a clear and specific appeal to labor. Giving a nod to workers trying to organize at Atlantic City casinos, Obama said, "We need to stand with them and help them organize."
He spoke at the third in a series of seven forums with the major Democratic 2008 presidential contenders sponsored by the AFL-CIO, to wind up at a multi-candidate forum when AFL-CIO leaders meet in Chicago in early August.
It's too early in the AFL-CIO process to determine if there will even be an endorsement, much sought after by the Democrats in the 2008 field because union members are a large Democratic constituency and the 10-million member AFL-CIO runs a national political organization. AFL-CIO president John Sweeney has asked its union affiliates not to endorse until the August Executive Council meeting.
In mid-March, Obama did not even use the word union when he addressed the International Association of Fire Fighters. His speech was lightly tailored to a union crowd when he talked a short time late at a Building Trades convention.
FULL story at link.
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