Blagojevich and Union Have Longstanding Ties

[Omaha Steve]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122912760515203213.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

* DECEMBER 13, 2008

By CLARE ANSBERRY

Allegations that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich approached the nation's largest union seeking help in a complex pay-for-play scheme involving an open Senate seat are the latest episode in a long, mutually beneficial relationship between the governor and the powerful Service Employees International Union.

The two-million member union had long been a big political backer of Mr. Blagojevich, who helped it organize workers throughout the state, sometimes over the objections of competing unions.

The relationship, while not illegal or even unusual for the SEIU, may help explain why the union finds itself involved with a federal criminal investigation against Mr. Blagojevich. The governor was arrested this week after federal authorities issued a complaint against him which, among other things, said his office suggested a deal might be worked out in which he would be given a union job in exchange for naming a labor-friendly senator to fill the vacancy left by President-elect Barack Obama.


European Pressphoto Agency

Gov. Blagojevich welcomes ministers from a local church to his home Friday.


The complaint said Mr. Blagojevich spoke twice, once in person, with an SEIU official about the Senate seat. An internal union communication, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, named Tom Balanoff, the head of SEIU's Illinois territory, as the SEIU official. The SEIU says that it doesn't believe any of its officials engaged in any wrongdoing and that it was cooperating with the federal investigation.

Organized labor routinely supports elected officials, campaigning on their behalf in an effort to elect pro-labor candidates. The SEIU was an early and strong supporter of Mr. Blagojevich, backing him over several other candidates in 2002. That year, according to an AFL-CIO document, the SEIU sought and received a commitment from then-candidate Blogojevich to issue an executive order that would direct the state to negotiate a collective contract with home-based workers.

The SEIU had been working for years to build union support among child-care and home-health-care workers, who are often low paid and without health insurance, and would have requested the same commitment from any candidate, said SEIU spokesperson Michelle Ringuette.

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