HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) -- Even sunny Florida can't totally brighten a troubled labor movement.þþThe nation's labor leaders gathered here this week for the AFL-CIO's annual winter executive council meeting are facing a poor economy with mounting layoffs, particularly in industrial union jobs.þþAn insider trading scandal at a union-owned insurance company has ripped through labor at a time when it wanted to talk about corporate greed and corruption.þþAnd, Republicans control the entire federal government, thwarting organized labor at almost every turn, from barring thousands of government workers from bargaining collectively to proposing strict new financial reporting requirements that open unions' books to the world.þþSo it's not surprising that labor leaders' discussions and plans are focusing on 2004 this week -- earlier than ever before.þþ``It's an attempt to get things rolling sooner in terms of educating our members and mobilizing them,'' said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. ``It gives us time to train people who will be actively involved in campaigns, and have trained people in place during the primary process.''þþThe extra time, about six months, also will be used to hold politicians accountable, he said.þþ``Right now the administration and the Congress are not paying attention to issues important to working families,'' Sweeney said.þþMany of the Democratic presidential candidates plan to spend time this week courting union officials. They heard Monday from Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun.þþSweeney said he wants unions ``to stay unified and not to make any early decisions until they have as good an idea as possible as to where their members stand.''þþThat didn't stop Democrats from trying.þþ``I think they're looking for somebody who sees things through their eyes and will fight for working families,'' Edwards said. ``I think they're looking for somebody who's really willing to take this fight to George Bush.''þþMoseley-Braun said she has ``the vision to lead the country out of the doldrums that we are currently in.''þþLieberman said: ``The prevailing mood here is that the Bush administration has been not only a disaster in general for our economy but has particularly made life much harder for working people, middle-class Americans.''þþGephardt, who is spending four days here, said his visit with union officials ``is going well, real well,'' as he left a meeting of union political directors.þþAndy Stern, president of the AFL-CIO's largest union, the Service Employees International Union with 1.5 million members, said the Democrat who takes on President Bush in 2004 has to ``pass the hang test, which is, you've got to go out and be able to be with workers.''þþIn 2000, Al Gore ``never really passed that test. Bush did,'' he said. ``He puts on those boots and his belt buckles and swaggers around the ranch and tries to convince us he's just a regular old guy,'' Stern said.þþGephardt, a longtime labor ally, has a lot to say to union members about his record on trade and other issues important to labor. Still, he doesn't have a lock on the labor vote, although he's been more bold in recent weeks on issues such as health care, taxes and the minimum wage, to the delight of unions, Stern said.þþTeamsters union officials had lunch with Gephardt on Monday. He and Teamsters President James P. Hoffa are longtime friends, and both attended law school at the University of Michigan.þþ``None of the candidates are any better on our issues than Gephardt,'' political director Mike Mathis said. He said his union will poll members in early primary states in the next month before it decides when and if it will endorse.þþFormer Vermont governor Howard Dean, expected Tuesday, also is generating a lot of interest. ``What he believes in he's not afraid of,'' said Stern. He likened Dean to Sen. John McCain, whose no-nonsense style attracted a large number of independent voters in the 2000 GOP presidential primary.þþ
Source: NY Times
