Unions Can Play Key Role in Election

The stunning upset election victory of Sen. Harris Wofford (D-Penn.) last week has created a rare upbeat mood among delegates to the national AFL-CIO convention that opened here Monday.

Today, delegates will be wooed by all six announced Democratic presidential candidates, and echoes of Wofford’s populist campaign messages are certain to reverberate through the Democrats’ speeches.

While the style and the specifics of the candidates’ proposals will differ somewhat, they are going to pound home their own variations of Wofford’s winning populist goals that so closely resemble those of organized labor.

After repeatedly being defeated by the anti-union Presidents Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George Bush, the Democrats and their labor allies should see Wofford’s populist campaign as a way for them to finally help repair the economic and social damage done by the Republican Administrations.

And none of the Democrats are likely to hint even indirectly that they don’t crave the endorsement of labor, which played what Wofford himself said was the crucial role in his election.

Some political commentators have argued that unions are so out of favor with the average voter that a labor endorsement of a presidential candidate would help the opposition. That reasoning has never deterred candidates from seeking labor’s backing.

A warm, mutual embrace like the one between labor and Wofford in Pennsylvania may not be quite so helpful for a presidential candidate as it was for Wofford, because unions represent nearly 30% of that state’s workers, compared to only 16% of the national work force.

But those campaigning for the Democratic nomination here today aren’t going to be lukewarm about seeking support from the AFL-CIO, with its 14 million members, or from independent unions such as the National Education Assn., with nearly 2 million members.

Wofford’s victory, with its unequivocally populist and progressive theme, ought to help labor unite behind a Democrat who won’t be frightened by the prospect that Bush will again try to make a pro-worker agenda sound like a curse, as he did in 1988.

Too many Democratic leaders seem to believe that mimicking Republicans is the only way for them to get to the White House.

Robert Wages, president of the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers, said Wofford’s victory “proved that a candidate can come from far behind and with labor’s help win on a progressive platform that, sadly, too many Democrats run away from.”

Jack Sheinkman, president of Amalgamated Clothing & Textile Workers, says Wofford’s win showed that “Americans are hungry for a progressive agenda for change, and if the Democratic Party doesn’t spell it out, then the labor movement must lead the way.”

Most labor leaders seem to prefer Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) over the other candidates. If the AFL-CIO unions can reach an early consensus and do for the relatively unknown Harkin what they did for the relatively unknown Wofford, Harkin might well be our next President.

Walter Mondale secured his 1984 Democratic Party nomination because of labor’s influence. Factors such as Reagan’s personal appeal, not labor’s endorsement, defeated the much less attractive Mondale.

No early endorsement of Harkin, or any other candidate, will be made here this week. But tapes, texts and analyses of the positions voiced by the candidates here today will be quickly distributed to local unions across the nation.

The AFL-CIO will then see if there is a consensus for an early endorsement.

Lynn Williams, president of the United Steelworkers of America, and a few other union leaders first helped Wofford by successfully urging their friend, Pennsylvania Gov. Robert Casey, to appoint Wofford as interim senator after the death of Republican Sen. John Heinz.

Labor put up seed money to start Wofford’s campaign for the Senate. The steelworkers put 52 union people to work full time for him, and they were joined by activists from other unions.

Unions gave an estimated $350,000 to Wofford’s $4-million campaign fund, and thousands of labor volunteers, including many retired ones, put on an intensive campaign by phone banks and door-to-door visits to persuade other members to support labor’s friend, Wofford.

The national AFL-CIO was part of what became a crusade as Wofford pressed his own and labor’s demands for such things as the widely popular national health insurance program and changes in our tax structure that now does far more for the wealthy than for middle-class workers.

Wofford went into the race badly trailing Republican Richard Thornburgh in the polls. Thornburgh was strongly backed by visits from Bush, but Wofford won with 55% of the votes.

Los Angeles AFL-CIO County Labor Federation Secretary William R. Robertson said Wofford’s victory was a referendum on Bush’s policies and another strong indication that workers are finally realizing that it is time to put an end to the Reagan-Bush policies that are hurting them so badly.

Bush’s defeat next year is far from assured. He may even soon start sounding more like the Democrats as he tries to blame them for the nation’s serious economic troubles.

But delegates to the AFL-CIO convention here are starting to push labor’s agenda harder than ever, and, if they back a presidential candidate such as Harkin, they can get the Democratic nominee to help carry out their agenda that did wonders for Wofford.