In Ohio, Candidates Court Unions
Battle May Decide Tuesday's Primary

By Alec MacGillis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 2, 2008

PARMA, Ohio -- The side streets of this Cleveland suburb of modest Cape Cods were barely plowed last week and the street signs obscured by snow as Gina Knapp and Teri Harris, 48-year-old school bus drivers from a nearby town, crept along in Knapp's minivan looking for the homes of union members whose leadership has endorsed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).

Their targets were the mainstays of Ohio organized labor -- teachers, state employees, machinists, mostly the descendants of Italian and Eastern European immigrants -- and their pitch was straightforward: Clinton will get things done for working America.

"She's more experienced and has a definite plan," said Knapp, who is on leave from her job to canvass for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which has 120,000 members in the state. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), she said, "is a speechmaker."

Not far away, in northeast Cleveland, two representatives of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which has 30,000 members in Ohio, made their way across a mostly African American neighborhood of worn Victorians in a mud-streaked Buick Regal to drum up support for Obama among a new vanguard of organized labor -- hospital workers, grocery store clerks, home-care aides. Their pitch: Obama would make things happen because he is building a movement.

"He's been able to bring together different people, black and white, different parts of the country, and that's what it's going to take to get health care and jobs," said Gabe Kramer, 32, an SEIU organizer.

It was thankless work on both sides, with many residents not at home and others not deigning to open the door. But it represented the most visible manifestation of a clash that will help decide the outcome of Tuesday's Ohio Democratic primary and with it, perhaps, the outcome of the party's extended presidential nomination battle.

In a state where organized labor still holds sway -- 14 percent of workers are unionized -- Clinton and Obama each have several major unions on their side, with hundreds of labor troops brought in from outside the state for the showdown. Which of these unions delivers more votes will help determine not only who will be the nominee but also which unions will be able to claim an edge in an ongoing nationwide confrontation about how best to revive organized labor after years of steady decline.

The battle lines are clear. On Clinton's side are some of the biggest unions in the AFL-CIO, such as AFSCME, the American Federation of Teachers and the machinists' union. Working for Obama, who until recently had little organized-labor backing, are some of the unions that broke off from the AFL-CIO in 2005 to form the Change to Win coalition: the SEIU, the Teamsters, Unite Here (hotel workers) and the United Food and Commercial Workers.

There are exceptions: The United Farm Workers are part of Change to Win but back Clinton; the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union is part of the AFL-CIO but backs Obama. Remaining neutral are several big industrial unions, such as the United Steelworkers, which endorsed former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.), and the United Auto Workers.

But with most Change to Win unions behind Obama, the Ohio battle is looming as a chance for the coalition to assert itself against its former partners. When they quit, the unions argued that the AFL-CIO was spending too much time and money on campaigns and lobbying, and not enough on organizing workers at a time of declining union membership. The breakaway unions argued that labor had to undergo internal reform, while the AFL-CIO unions argued that the main challenge remained external political forces.

The breakaway unions, led by the service employees, have shown no sign of giving up on politics but see themselves as practicing a new brand of it, infusing campaigns with the grass-roots energy of organizing drives. Now that they are backing Obama, they hail his movement-driven campaign as a perfect match. The AFL-CIO unions, meanwhile, want to show that they still have the upper hand.

"It gets bitter at the national level," said Gary Chaison, a labor specialist at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. "For the two federations, it's for bragging rights for who's still a potent political force."

Union leaders said they will come together behind the eventual nominee, but there is still an advantage to be gained in backing a winning team from the outset, in the form of access in the White House. Unions' wish lists include legislation that would make it easier to organize workers, major revisions to the North American Free Trade Agreement and a higher minimum wage.

It was partly with such influence in mind that unions such as those of teachers and public employees decided to get on board early in endorsing Clinton, who was then the overwhelming favorite. In 2004, AFSCME endorsed former Vermont governor Howard Dean (D) at the peak of his popularity. This time around, AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee said last fall, the union would take more care in deciding.

But with Obama ahead in delegates, it is possible that the union might again have failed to pick a winner. And it has had to deal with internal divisions that became public when seven members of its national board wrote McEntee in December objecting to the aggressive tactics being used against Obama, including radio ads in New Hampshire attacking his health-care plan. Some misgivings linger, said Sal Luciano of Connecticut, one of the signers.

"It's a matter of resources," Luciano said. "We want to use the resources in the best way possible. It's nice to pick an early horse, but you also want to marshal your resources for the real fight."

The service employees, who also endorsed Dean in 2004, took a different approach this time, deciding after much debate not to endorse while allowing state chapters to make their own picks. But after Edwards's exit in January, the union threw its full weight behind Obama, who by then was emerging as the front-runner. It is now running TV ads in Ohio, adding to Obama's edge on the airwaves.

"A number of unions believe that a movement is building that can actually bring about a significant change in our country, and Barack Obama is leading the movement," said Anna Burger, the SEIU's secretary-treasurer.

The surge of labor backing has helped Obama fight the perception that he is the candidate of the effete wing of the Democratic Party, or, as machinists' union chief Tom Buffenbarger put it in a pro-Clinton tirade last month, the candidate of "latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust-fund babies."

Most valuable in this regard was the backing of the Teamsters, who have sent mailings and automated phone calls from the heads of their Ohio locals to the 60,000 members in the state.

Last week, Tom Curtin, a national union official, visited Teamster workplaces including the Cleveland Zoo, where 63 employees belong to the union. In the rain forest and later at the elephant house, he told animal keepers that Obama is best on issues such as NAFTA, which Clinton supported in the 1990s. "He's always been with us on labor issues," Curtin said.

Obama is not always an easy sell. In northeastern Cleveland, Kramer and David Hawthorne, 42, a nursing-home worker and father of six, stood outside a house with badly peeling paint and drafty windows trying to win over Jose Hilbret, a corrections officer.

Obama "sounds good, but can he get it done?" Hilbret asked. "You're going to be in there with all those good ol' boys and Republicans, you need someone who can wheel and deal."

Kramer, an Indiana native with a scruffy beard, told Hilbret about Obama's time in the Illinois legislature. Hilbret said he remained fond of the Clintons and was upset about the waste of money in Iraq. Kramer reminded him that Obama had opposed the war and suggested that it is time to move beyond the Clintons.

"I don't want to repeat the same struggles again and again," he said.

"I agree, somebody got to be new. We need some fresh air," Hilbret said.

"Then what's holding you back?" Hawthorne chimed in. "You see now, you can make a change."

It wasn't much easier in Parma for the AFSCME members. Knapp had little luck at houses where people were at home. At one, a woman who was called to the door by her children said that she was trying to sleep and slammed the door.

Knapp was unfazed. "You get that," she said. "People are working two or three jobs to make ends meet."

She was confident that Clinton will prevail in Ohio, thanks to the efforts of people such as her and the votes of other union members such as her husband and son, industrial roofers, and her daughter, a teacher.

"There is a perception that he is ahead in the game," Knapp said, referring to Obama and the nomination race. "But we know different. That's not really the way it is. If she stays strong with what she's going to do for the people, it'll come through for her."