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.þþSeveral 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.þþUnder 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.þþOfficials 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.þþ“That would be the most intense member-to-member campaign I’ve heard of in the labor movement,” said D. Taylor, secretary-treasurer of Culinary Workers Local 226 in Las Vegas, a 60,000-member local — by far the state’s largest union — which endorsed Mr. Obama on Wednesday.þþLarry 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.þþ“We’re going in there full-bore,” Mr. Scanlon said. “It’s a big state. We have members in Laughlin, Elko, Reno. We’re leaving no stone unturned. We want to talk to every member in the state and make sure they get to the caucuses. Our goal is to make sure that every member gets touched personally, repeatedly.”þþOfficials 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.þþThe 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. þþBut 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. þþChuck 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.þþ“We’re playing a dual role,” Mr. Rocha said. “We do member-to-member beginning at 7 a.m., going to factory entrances, for instance. When their eight-hour workday is over by 2 or 3, we have this army of 40 people who become volunteers for the Edwards campaign, who have a bigger impact.”þþIn another dispute among the unions, the Nevada State Education Association, the union representing teachers, filed a lawsuit Friday in federal court against the Nevada Democratic Party, asking a judge to ban caucuses at hotels and casinos, where thousands of culinary workers will be on the job Saturday. þþThe association’s president, Lynn Warne, said it was unfair for culinary workers to participate in caucuses at their workplace when teachers and other employees could not.þþThe 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.þþMr. McElroy said this interunion battle showed the vibrancy and importance of organized labor. “When you look at the turnout in Iowa and turnout in New Hampshire, it’s a testament to organizations like ours that work hard to get out the vote,” he said. “It’s great for democracy.”þþBut some labor leaders argued that it was wasteful for unions to spend millions of dollars battling one another on behalf of three primary candidates, all considered pro-union. These officials say those millions should instead be spent in the general election campaign or to organize nonunion workers.þþ“We’re working hard to make sure that Hillary Clinton is the candidate,” Mr. McElroy said. “But when it’s all said and done and there is a candidate, our hope is that all of labor will get behind that candidate.”þþ
Source: NY Times
