Obama-Clinton Clash May Pale Beside Unions' Pennsylvania Battle

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aw41tNrtu6G4&refer=home

By Kim Chipma

April 10 (Bloomberg) -- As Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama vie for voters in Pennsylvania's presidential primary, another rivalry is playing out between two of the state's largest unions.

In Clinton's corner is the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the third-biggest U.S. union, with about 95,000 active members in Pennsylvania and 1.4 million nationwide. Obama has the support of the Service Employees International Union, the second-largest in the U.S., which represents 1.9 million janitors, security guards and nurses, and has 68,000 active members in the state.


``It's the gunfight at the O.K. Corral,'' said Gerald McEntee, president of AFSCME, the largest member of the AFL-CIO federation.

The showdown between the unions is more bitter than the contest between Clinton and Obama. McEntee and SEIU President Andrew Stern, onetime allies who in recent years have been locked in turf wars and arguments over the future of organized labor, each began their union careers in Pennsylvania, and the battle has become personal.

Ohio Win

``We kicked Andy's ass from one end of Ohio to the other, and in Texas, too,'' McEntee, 73, told an AFL-CIO executive committee meeting in San Diego on March 5, the day after New York Senator Clinton, 60, revived her candidacy by beating Illinois Senator Obama, 46, in the Ohio and Texas primaries.

Stern, 57, declined to comment on McEntee's remarks. ``It's beneath him,'' said SEIU spokeswoman Michelle Ringuette.

FULL story at link.

[OutNow]

1. The Battle only weakens the Democratic Party

This entry makes me sick to my stomach. Two of the most progressive unions in the country fighting with each other rather than working together is depressing. AFSCME and SEIU are the core unions in U.S. Labor Against The War. They march together in all the large antiwar rallies in Washington and New York and elsewhere. We need their help to end the Iraq War and to end 8 years of Republican ruin.

http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/

[Omaha Steve]

2. There is a battle going on at the top of AFSCME

It started the first of the year in public in the press. I would not be surprised to see Gerry step down at the AFSCME convention this Summer.

AFSCME 2008 International Convention
Date: Mon, Jul 28, 2008 - Fri, Aug 01, 2008
Location:
San Francisco, CA
Event Type: Conventions

[meandbobbymcgee]

3. SEIU

I would follow Andy Stern's judgement. The guy is not scared to use tactics to wake up the public.