monolithic. They vote on both sides.''
Sweeney Defends Gore Endorsement
By ALICE ANN LOVE Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said Monday the
labor federation was correct to endorse Al Gore, even amid talk at a gathering of
union leaders here of some rank-and-file support for Republican John McCain.
``We're confident that the endorsement was the way that a significant majority of
our members wanted to go,'' said Sweeney during his opening press conference at
the AFL-CIO executive council's midwinter meeting.
Speaking separately Monday, Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees
International Union, said that enough of his union's members have been interested
in McCain that the union considered officially recommending him as an alternative
to the vice president for its Republican and independent members.
SEIU ultimately did not take that step, and has endorsed only Gore. But McCain
did meet with the union's members in New Hampshire, where he won the
Republican presidential primary last month.
``And we'll still do that'' in other states, said Stern. ``Our members aren't
monolithic. They vote on both sides.''
In addition, two other large unions are refusing to join the AFL-CIO's
endorsement of Gore: the Teamsters and the United Auto Workers.
Those unions are expected to get on board eventually. But in the meantime, some
of their members have campaigned for Gore's challenger for the Democratic
nomination, former Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey, in the nation's earliest
primaries.
Sweeney disputed the existence of any significant labor movement support for
McCain -- something that McCain's Republican rival, Texas Gov. George W.
Bush, has alleged in recent days.
``I think John McCain has been anti-worker, anti-working families' agenda,
throughout his whole career in the United States Senate,'' Sweeney said. As an
example, Sweeney said McCain has opposed increases in the minimum wage.
``On the Democratic side, we have two good people. We think Al Gore is the
better of the two,'' said the AFL-CIO president. ``We believe that we're going to be
able to mobilize rank-and-file workers and activists across the country to be
engaged in their communities and their workplaces around the election of Al
Gore.''
The AFL-CIO council has scheduled a closed-door meeting with Gore on
Thursday.
Besides politics, which is dominating the agenda, union leaders have gathered here
to discuss the year's organizing goals and strategies.
AFL-CIO organizing director Kirk Adams said unions will be trying to top last
year's net gain of 265,000 cardholders -- 600,000 total new members minus union
jobs lost and retirements.
That was a 20-year record, but Adams said it was not good enough if labor wants
to improve the proportion of union to nonunion workers. About 13.9 percent of
workers are unionized.
``We need to do about a million a year to gain,'' said Adams.
In New Orleans, Sweeney said the focus will be on hotels where profits swell each
year around this time thanks to Mardi Gras visitors.
``While New Orleans hotels are among the most profitable in America, the city's
hospitality workers are among the worst paid in the nation,'' Sweeney said.
Tracy Lawson, earning $5.95 an hour as a room service waitress, said of hotel
visitors: ``They don't know what's going on inside the building, how we are being
mistreated.''
``Like many sunbelt cities, this is not a historically union town,'' Sweeney said.
``But New Orleans is an excellent example of a place where unions are organizing
and growing.''
He was to attend a special mass at the city's famed St. Louis cathedral to celebrate
the organizing victory of Avondale shipyard workers here last fall after six years
of struggle.
Elsewhere, AFL-CIO treasurer Richard Trumpka said the federation is considering
ways of using the clout of union pension funds as major corporate stockholders to
influence contract talks and organize drives at companies including Boeing, Sprint
and General Electric.
(PROFILE (CO:General Electric Co; TS:GE; IG:CGL;) )