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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (248222)	4/16/2002 10:44:27 AM
From: DMaA	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

John Kerry courts Greens. Blues tell him to go to hell. WSJ: Labor Revolt You might not see the picket lines, but a chunk of the American labor movement is staging a notable walkout -- against the Democratic Party. The trend is already having consequences in Congress and could echo through November and into 2004. Leading the revolt is James P. Hoffa, head of the AFL-CIO's third-largest union, the 1.4 million Teamsters. Mr. Hoffa has become a key and very public supporter of the Bush energy plan, which is also backed by a union coalition of carpenters, miners and seafarers. He has lobbied inside Big Labor for a more neutral political bent and his officials were recently overheard giving Democrats on Capitol Hill hell for killing jobs. Today, some 500 Teamsters will help present the Senate amendment to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Meanwhile, the United Auto Workers, electricians and machinists have rebelled against Democrats on issues from fuel-efficiency standards to nuclear energy. They follow last year's resignation from the AFL-CIO by the influential United Brotherhood of Carpenters, along with its half-million members and $4 million in annual dues. Some of this is issue specific, but it's also a sign of deeper labor tensions. When John Sweeney took over the AFL-CIO in 1995, he turned it in a markedly more partisan and ideological direction. He aligned Big Labor with a coalition of interest groups on the cultural and big government left. This is fine with most public-sector unions (teachers especially), which grow along with government. But this leftward tilt has increasingly alienated many of the old industrial unions, which grow only when the private economy does. Many of these unions also don't share the cultural liberalism of the Washington AFL-CIO elites, who are often well-to-do Ivy Leaguers. They resent the money being pushed into political campaigns and would rather spend more on shop-room organizing. In Mr. Sweeney's tenure, the union share of the private-sector work force has actually fallen, to 9.1%. All of these tensions have come to the surface in the energy debate, where Democrats have had to choose between the greens (enviros) and blues (unions). Senator (and would-be President) John Kerry thought he could win over the greens and suburbanites by pushing new car-mileage standards, but instead he inspired a labor rebellion. Nineteen Senate Democrats, primarily from industrial states, joined Republicans to kill Mr. Kerry's proposals. Mr. Hoffa and fellow unions are now doing the same for oil-drilling in Alaska, spending heavily on ads across the country. He's vowed to "remember" Democrats who vote against drilling. And he specifically singled out New Jersey's Robert Torricelli (up for re-election this fall) and Michigan's Debbie Stabenow (a top recipient of union cash in her 2000 race). In case they don't believe him, the Teamsters have already endorsed three GOP Congressional candidates in Michigan. President Bush has noticed all of this, naturally, and is openly courting union support. Having won only a third of union households in 2000, Mr. Bush knows he has lots of votes to gain. Sometimes his effort runs to schmoozing, as when he made Mr. Hoffa one of his noted guests at the State of the Union. But sometimes he's bowed to political temptation and bent his principles, as with his 30% steel tariff. Mr. Bush might keep in mind that Mr. Hoffa has helped him even though last year he ignored Teamster objections and fulfilled his campaign promise to allow Mexican trucks into the U.S. The President is also no doubt aware that Mr. Hoffa wants an end to 13 years of federal oversight into his union -- which should only happen on the legal merits. Unions are moving to the Republicans less out of love for the GOP than from disillusionment with Democrats. Democrats had better be careful or they'll give Mr. Bush the chance to form a formidable majority. Updated April 16, 2002