Clinton, Obama carve out backing of local unions

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/politics/ny-liunio0203,0,6151311.story

BY RICK BRAND | [e-mail]
7:20 PM EST, February 2, 2008

Little more than an hour after the 3 p.m. school bell rang, nearly two dozen teacher volunteers began to show up at their union's Suffolk headquarters in Hauppauge to stuff envelopes and make phone calls for Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"We have to have a change," said Sayville retiree June Smith, a three-decade primary veteran who helped mobilize the recent effort. "She's been 100 percent on our issues. You can't do better than that."

In much the same way that Clinton has lined up most of the state's elected Democrats, she also has amassed an impressive array of union backing across the state. Nearly two dozen unions have formally endorsed Clinton. Others, like the state AFL-CIO, have passed "favorite daughter" resolutions, even though their national unions have yet to take a stand.

Nonetheless, rival Barack Obama has his own union supporters and his backers say that many top union officials are backing Clinton only out of fear -- and that many of their grassroots members are with Obama.

On the Republican side, Edward Cox, chairman of John McCain's New York campaign, said the senator has two key law enforcement endorsements -- from the unions of NYPD sergeants and captains.

On Long Island alone, Clinton has a delegate slate studded with statewide union powers such as Gary LaBarbera, head of Teamsters Local 242 and head of the 1.4-million-member New York City Central Labor Council; Richard C. Iannuzzi, president of the 590,000-member New York State United Teachers; and John Durso, head of the Long Island Federation of Labor, a coalition of AFL-CIO groups.

FULL story at link.