Why Did My Union Give an Early Endorsement to Hillary Clinton Over Bernie Sanders?
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/18766/afge-union-endorsement-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-laborThe leadership of my union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), officially endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president on December 10. The endorsement came after union leadership had informed its members on November 17 that they would not make a presidential endorsement for at least two more months and without holding a membership vote.
Fifty-five rank-and-file union members from over 50 different AFGE locals signed on to a letter sent to AFGE leaders on November 16 that urged the union “to oppose an early primary endorsement for Hillary Clinton” and expressed support for Senator Bernie Sanders.
In response to the petition and the demand that the union refrain from issuing an early endorsement, National Vice President Gerald Swanke, from District 11, responded via email: "We're not. I don't expect an endorsement until at least the legislative conference."
The AFGE Legislative Conference of 2016 is scheduled for February 8, 2016. With the sense of urgency removed, many AFGE members began preparing to attend the conference to make the argument there to endorse Sanders.
Since AFGE's endorsement, I have reached out to over half a dozen staffers by phone and email at the district and national levels. I was able to reach one staff member and had the admin of the AFGE Facebook page respond to a comment or two, but other than that, my phone calls and emails have not been returned.
AFGE leadership appeared to pursue two paths to determine its endorsement. First, they sent out a questionnaire to all presidential candidates. Second, they conducted a poll of 800 members, which they refer to as the "gold standard" (it's not clear if this is 800 out of its 300,000 members or out of the 670,000 federal workers AFGE represents). Based on these results, AFGE’s National Executive Committee (NEC) then voted to endorse Hillary Clinton for president.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Though I'm not a member, and your information may be on member only pages.
On the positive side, I read the great majority are Ds, if Senator Sanders wins the primary the Union will back him 
What I thought was quite sad was not one republican even cared enough to respond to the November meeting request..
Republicans don't even care enough about the Gov. they want to become president of, to even speak to our Gov. employees.
respondents.
Would have been worse if republicans were the overwhelming initial 'respondents' and the Union would have had to endorse Trump if he took the time to fill out the questionnaire 
Goes to show people, read your Union news and respond/vote on everything you can.
have been soooo great for Unions and union membership. 
Maybe they'll actually believe Hillary too if she says she'll put on her walking shoes and join them.
Different union but they endorsed HRC early. Not much to do about it, I guess.
