Union Leaders Warned by Gephardt Aide

A top aide to Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri threatened political retaliation this week against union leaders in the home state of the Democratic presidential candidate if they aided Howard Dean, underscoring growing tensions in the 2004 race.

Gephardt, who is running for president as a champion of organized labor, sought Wednesday to distance himself from the incident. Without denying that it occurred, aides to Gephardt said he did not condone the comments made by Joyce Aboussie, his national campaign vice chair, at a Monday meeting in St. Louis. The aides also said he was not aware of her statements until after the fact.

“The meeting was not authorized by Congressman Gephardt,” said Kim Molstre, a campaign spokeswoman in Washington. “Joyce was not acting as a representative for him. He knew nothing about it.”

Aboussie agreed in a separate statement. Without denying the remarks attributed to her, she apologized “if anyone felt threatened” by her words.

The flap surfaced Wednesday when the national heads of two labor unions that recently endorsed Dean released a letter to Gephardt detailing the meeting. The two -- Gerald W. McEntee of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and Andrew L. Stern of the Service Employees International Union -- called on Gephardt to fire Aboussie and disavow her statements.

According to the account provided by McEntee and Stern, Aboussie met at Gephardt’s Missouri campaign headquarters with local officials of the two unions. Also attending were Missouri Gov. Bob Holden, a Democrat, and his chief of staff, as well as the director of Gephardt’s Missouri campaign.

At the meeting, according to the letter, Aboussie “delivered an ultimatum” to union leaders, warning them against dispatching members to work on Dean’s behalf in Iowa, where caucuses on Jan. 19 kick off the Democratic race. Polls have shown Dean and Gephardt battling for first place in the state.

The letter said Aboussie also told the local union officials not to campaign for Dean in Missouri, which holds its primary on Feb. 3 and which Gephardt, as native son, is expected to win.

If the union leaders ignored the threat, the letter went on, Aboussie said she would gather signatures from state lawmakers seeking repeal of a collective bargaining right won 2 1/2 years ago by state employees.

McEntee and Stern called Aboussie’s threat of retaliation “an unconscionable and outrageous act.”

“This would take union protections from thousands of state employees,” the letter to Gephardt stated. “It’s bad enough to deliver an ultimatum to any group of people. But for a senior aide of yours ... to do so at the expense of Missouri’s state employees is deplorable.”

The AFSCME and the SEIU endorsed Dean last month, giving his campaign an important lift. A spokesman for McEntee said the former Vermont governor had nothing to do with the letter. “There is no coordination between the Dean campaign and our unions on this matter at all,” said Ethan Rome, an AFSCME spokesman.

The Dean campaign declined to comment.

The controversy, the latest between the Dean and Gephardt camps, comes as the fight between the two -- and their union backers -- intensifies with the approach of the Iowa caucuses.

The Dean endorsement by the two unions was a setback for Gephardt, long a champion of organized labor and its causes. It also created a split within labor ranks, with many of the large industrial unions putting their muscle behind Gephardt.

The two candidates and their supporters have skirmished with increasing frequency in recent weeks. The disputes have been both substantive -- focusing on differences over trade and government spending -- and juvenile, involving charges that backers have shoved and called each other names.

The collective-bargaining issue for state employees long had been controversial in Missouri. In June 2001, Holden issued an executive order allowing for collective bargaining by more than 30,000 state employees. For years, the state Legislature had refused to grant the employees that right, and Holden’s move was considered a major victory for organized labor in Missouri.

Gephardt supported the move -- as the congressman’s campaign was quick to point out Wednesday. “The idea that Dick Gephardt would ever oppose collective bargaining is absolutely ridiculous,” said Bill Carrick, a strategist for his presidential campaign.

Still, the revelation was an embarrassment for the congressman and a source of anger and frustration among Gephardt staffers, many of whom have criticized Aboussie for years -- usually behind her back.

Aboussie has been associated with Gephardt since she volunteered to work on his first run for Congress, in 1976. Eventually, she rose to the position of national political director, although her main function had been tending to home-state politics. Through her work for Gephardt and her private telemarketing-polling firm, Aboussie has become one of the state’s most influential political insiders.

Known as a gatekeeper to Gephardt, Aboussie has a reputation for guarding his interests, employing what some have called intimidation tactics. The loyalty runs both ways.

During an October speech to the Arab American Institute in Dearborn, Mich., Gephardt called Aboussie, who is of Lebanese descent, “my political mentor for the entire time that I’ve been in public life.”

He also said: “She’s like my sister. She’s like a member of my family. I love her and I think she is as strong a political talent as has ever been in the United States of America.”

Aboussie could not be reached Wednesday for comment. Her statement said: “In a candid discussion of Missouri politics, I expressed my belief that people in Missouri Democratic politics were upset by the SEIU/AFSCME endorsements of Howard Dean. If anyone felt threatened by what I said, I apologize.”

The Gephardt campaign accused Dean’s supporters of stirring up trouble to distract from the hubbub over the former governor’s sealing of his official state papers. “This is a political tactic on their part to turn attention away from Gov. Dean,” said press secretary Molstre.

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Times staff writer Matea Gold contributed to this report.