> Steve Rosenthal the political action director of the AFL-CIO puts the
union
> "protest vote" at around 25%; me, I would say a good general election
guess would
> put it at around 35% in most elections.
>
> So, I will compromise with Rosenthal and say in this election the "protest
vote"
> will be around 30% of union voters.
The latest poll I heard about had Gore support among union voters at a miserable 57%, and the other 43% aren't voting Nader. One reason for this is a split in blue collar union/NRA members who are listenening to Charelton Heston more than their union. The AFL is focusing on this group in particular in phone banking and plant leaftletings (the latest leaflet reads: Al Gore does not want to take your gun, but George W Bush does want to take your union).
The one refreshing breeze in the miasma of Gore-mania regarding labor's activities is that instead of "loaning" people to the Dems in targeted races, Labor 2000 is a completely separate political operation (although at this point focused on reaching out to active union members or retirees who are registered Dems). While member participation fluctuates from region to region and union to union, if we are successful in winning some of the targeted races, this could be the beginning of building a grassroots-oriented political model outside the Democratic party.
While not many are openly talking of using this process to support third party candidates, it certainly could be used in this way, say, in local races while continuing to support the lesser of two evils in the White House.
Jeff