Unions Pouring Resources Into Nevada Caucus Fight

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Unions Pouring Resources Into Nevada Caucus Fight
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: January 13, 2008

With Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama eager to win the Democratic caucuses in Nevada next Saturday, labor unions backing Mr. Obama are in a surprisingly intense, expensive fight with those supporting Mrs. Clinton. Several pro-Clinton labor unions with small memberships in Nevada have thrown major resources into the state to counter pro-Obama unions with big memberships there. This has caused leaders of the pro-Obama unions to complain that one pro-Clinton union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, is bumping against the limits of the law by sending nearly 100 paid employees to Nevada to mobilize its roughly 3,000 members in the state. Under federal rules, paid union campaign workers are limited to communicating with members of their own unions, although after their paid hours, they can, as volunteers, reach out to anyone.

Officials with two pro-Obama unions — the service employees with 17,500 members in Nevada, and the culinary union — questioned this week why the pro-Clinton union of state, county and municipal employees would need nearly 100 paid employees to work with just 3,000 union members....Larry Scanlon, the political director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said it made sense to have nearly 100 employees in Nevada because it is a large state, with much territory to cover. In addition, Mr. Scanlon said the paid political workers were needed to teach union members how the caucus process works. Only about 9,000 people participated in the 2004 caucuses, and the state’s Democratic Party is preparing for far higher numbers this year....Officials of the state, county and municipal employees union said one reason so many paid employees were needed was to train the union’s roughly 3,000 members in Nevada to reach out, on their own time, to 10,000 nonunion government co-workers to urge them to back Mrs. Clinton at the caucuses.

The union is also backing Mrs. Clinton, of New York, by spending $214,000 this week on television commercials in Nevada. Those broadcast spots are sponsored by a group that is financed by the union’s political action committee, potentially providing her campaign with a much-needed lift to counter Mr. Obama, of Illinois.

But Mr. Obama’s union support in Nevada is formidable. Culinary Local 226 is the most politically powerful labor union in Nevada, and the unions backing Mrs. Clinton, as well as former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, are trying hard to counter its efforts. Union officials backing Mrs. Clinton note that many members of the culinary local are not American citizens and therefore cannot participate in the caucuses.

Chuck Rocha, the political director of the United Steelworkers, which backs Mr. Edwards, said his union had 42 paid workers in Nevada to mobilize its 3,500 members, including 900 Las Vegas cabdrivers....The American Federation of Teachers, which is backing Mrs. Clinton, has 15 paid campaign workers in Nevada, with dozens of volunteers from California expected this weekend. On Monday, that union’s president, Edward J. McElroy, will be in Las Vegas to oversee a session to train teachers and retired teachers how to participate in a caucus....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/us/politics/13nevada.html

[Omaha Steve]

1. K&R

A love a good labor post.