Biggest labor presence in history at Dem convention in Denver

[IndianaGreen]

Biggest labor presence in history at Dem convention in Denver

Author: John Wojcik
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 08/23/08 11:49

DENVER — Union members are arriving here by the tens of thousands for the Democratic National Convention and they are coming by train, plane, automobile, bus and even on foot. Thousands will participate in labor actions outside the convention and tens of thousands of them will be among the crowds that pack the Mile High Stadium on the night of Aug. 28 to hear Barack Obama’s acceptance speech.

If that’s not history enough, one in every four of the convention’s 4,200 delegates are union members themselves, both active and retired, or members of union households. By all accounts it is the heaviest labor presence at any major party political convention in the history of the United States.

Some of the unionists who are delegates were here already by Aug. 21 — well before the official Aug. 24 start date. While some were able to fly in and book rooms at hotels many had to drive and are sleeping in spare rooms or on spare floor space offered by friends or volunteers here.

One delegate from the battleground state of Alaska loaded up her car with provisions in Juneau and drove the 2,60-mile stretch from there.

Alaska, her point of origin, which has long been considered a Republican state, is in play for the Democrats this year because of scandals involving almost every Republican holding statewide office.

Cindy Spanyers, who was still making her 2,600 mile journey from Alaska to Denver on Aug. 22, said in an interview with an AFL-CIO blogger the day before that what motivated her to make the trip was “the dire need to do something about jobs and health care. Trying to make it into the middle class has become impossible,” she said.

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/13588/

[annabanana]

1. . . representing!. . . excellent. . . n/t