Harkin’s Failure to Gain Early Labor Support Boosts Clinton Campaign : Politics: AFL-CIO holds off endorsement. Industrial unions are drawn to the Iowa senator, but public employee groups see his rival as more electable.

With the clock ticking toward New Hampshire’s Feb. 18 primary, a split in organized labor has created new hurdles for Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin’s presidential campaign while boosting the hopes of Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton.

Although Harkin has embraced labor’s agenda more ardently than any of his four major competitors for the Democratic presidential nomination, unions backing him this week failed to secure an early AFL-CIO endorsement for his candidacy--partly because some union leaders question whether his purist liberal message can recapture the White House.

“It’s a dilemma,” said the political director of a large union that remains neutral in the race. “There is a feeling that all of us owe something to Tom Harkin because his is the message that the labor movement has been pushing on candidates since time immemorial. . . . But there is a lot of question whether Harkin can make it to the White House.”

The AFL-CIO’s decision to hold off on an endorsement represents a tactical victory for Clinton and is the latest in a series of positive developments for his campaign.

Many in the labor movement still view Clinton with suspicion because of his call for Democrats to reject some of the party’s traditional liberal tenets and seek the political center. But Clinton has enjoyed surprising success convincing several major unions that he stands a better chance against President Bush than does Harkin.

A schism has opened between the industrial unions, drawn to Harkin’s tough trade policies, and public employee unions, which are less concerned about that issue and consider Clinton, a free trader, the party’s strongest general election candidate.

This support for Clinton stands as the strongest evidence yet that even many liberal Democrats believe it is more important to coalesce quickly behind a nominee than to wage a lengthy ideological battle over the party’s direction.

“Clinton has a program that is sellable--and that’s the important thing in this election,” says Joseph E. McDermott, president of the Civil Service Employees Assn. in New York. McDermott recently endorsed Clinton in a letter to his 265,000 members.

Most analysts agree Harkin, who has backed the AFL-CIO on more than 90% of its key votes in his Senate career, has the broadest base of labor support. But Harkin fell short this week when AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland--at the urging of industrial unions committed to Harkin--polled labor leaders to see if he had the two-thirds support required for a federation endorsement.

Harkin campaign manager Tim Raftis said the campaign had “never anticipated” an early endorsement from the AFL-CIO. But Harkin partisans in the labor movement pushed hard for a preemptive move, fearing that if the union movement did not invigorate Harkin’s candidacy before the New Hampshire primary--where he is running fourth in recent polls--anything it does for him thereafter could be irrelevant.

At this point, none of the Democratic candidates beyond Harkin and Clinton appear to be a significant factor in labor’s deliberations. Although both Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey and former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. have attracted pockets of support, neither has widespread backing among major unions. And former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas has essentially disqualified himself by opposing labor’s top legislative priority--a bill to prevent companies from hiring permanent replacement workers during strikes.

In an attempt to limit Clinton’s inroads, unions backing Harkin are circulating material criticizing Clinton’s record in Arkansas on labor issues. One document notes that Arkansas ranked last in a recent independent study of workplace safety and accuses Clinton of reneging on promises to support labor on workers’ compensation and toxic right-to-know laws.

The sharpest questions are coming from the United Auto Workers, which is distributing a memo criticizing Clinton’s conduct in a UAW strike against Morrilton Plastics Products Inc., an auto parts manufacturer in Arkansas. Despite objections from the UAW, the company in 1990 secured a state industrial development loan guarantee that helped it resist the UAW strike. Clinton later attempted to mediate a settlement, but the agreement fell apart and the impasse continues, with the company now in bankruptcy.

In a memo written to other unions last October under the signature of national political director Joe Mangone, the UAW said: “Clinton and his Administration interfered with collective bargaining and in essence helped the company to try to bust the union.”

Bill Becker, president of the Arkansas AFL-CIO, said of Clinton, “If you took his record as governor and translated it into votes, his average (on labor issues) is about 30%.”

The Arkansas AFL-CIO is distributing a report generally critical of Clinton’s record to labor groups in key primary states.

Mike Gauldin, Clinton’s state press secretary, acknowledged that the governor has clashed with Arkansas unions, but contended that he shares the same “broad goals” as the labor movement.

Despite the objections to Clinton’s record--and to the consternation of Harkin backers--significant support for the Arkansas governor has surfaced within the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Assn., which is not affiliated with the AFL-CIO.

Each ranks among the labor movement’s most politically potent, with growing and geographically dispersed memberships accustomed to electoral battles. “In terms of ability to affect the process, these unions are key,” said one Harkin supporter.

Within the AFT--which is strong in such key early primary states as Maryland, Florida and New York--a plurality of members running as delegates to the Democratic convention are backing Clinton, as are the union’s top officials, says Rachelle Horowitz, the group’s political director. Within the NEA, Clinton has demonstrated support among state affiliates in Florida and Mississippi, with others likely to follow, union sources said.

Clinton’s strongest inroads have come in the 1.1-million member AFSCME, the second largest union in the AFL-CIO. Although Harkin enjoys strong support from AFSCME locals in the Midwest, labor sources said that Clinton has picked up endorsements from AFSCME leaders in Washington state, Illinois, Maryland and Pennsylvania, as well as McDermott’s local in New York.

Harkin, in part due to his opposition to the proposed free trade accord with Mexico and support for measures to limit imports of Japanese cars, is most popular among unions concerned about losing jobs to foreign competition, such as the UAW, the United Steelworkers and the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

Clinton has angered these unions by supporting the Mexico free-trade agreement and opposing legislation to limit Japanese imports.

Harkin also is attracting support among unions representing construction workers. One electrical workers union local in New Hampshire endorsed Harkin last week, calling him the only Democratic candidate “who has consistently fought for working people.”

That sentiment is common among New Hampshire unions, but many have held back from embracing Harkin because of doubts about his campaign’s momentum, says Mark S. MacKenzie, the state AFL-CIO president. And the industrial unions most committed to Harkin’s cause are concentrated in states such as Michigan and Illinois, which do not hold their primaries until March 17.

For that reason, many analysts say, the blue-collar unions may be unable to help Harkin unless he can establish enough momentum on his own to survive the Southern-dominated Super Tuesday contests on March 10.