Kerry adds to labor endorsements

[Feanorcurufinwe]

The coalition of unions that once backed Dick Gephardt in his presidential bid on Wednesday gave its expected endorsement to Democratic front-runner John Kerry.

The 19 unions that formed the Alliance for Economic Justice voted unanimously to get behind Kerry. An endorsement rally, timed for the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday, is planned in Milwaukee with Kerry, Gephardt and the unions' presidents.

<snip>

The Teamsters in particular have been forced to overcome hostile feelings toward Kerry, who led the fight against opening an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling, a proposal by President Bush that the union supported to create jobs.

The union's battle with Kerry escalated after his office organized a rally at the Capitol to oppose the oil drilling, featuring a Teamster from Alaska wearing a union hat and T-shirt. Teamsters officials at the time were outraged, calling the stunt a slap in the face. Some even threatened that the union would sit out the election if the Massachusetts senator won the Democratic nomination.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/02/11/national1726EST0800.DTL

[NewYorkerfromMass]

1. Kerry put the ANWR ahead of a "special interest"

in this case the Teamsters.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

3. Apparently Kerry thinks protecting the environment is more important

than short-term political gain.

[Nicholas_J]

2. Well

Those unions do get to spend money advertising about the candidates.

SEIU spent 1.4 million on Dean in Iowa, though it didnt do much good there as more than half of the unions rank and file voted for either Kerry or Gephardt in the Iowa Caucuses. This along with AFSCME support will give Kerry a rather large war chest

[oasis]

4. kick