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

To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (503264)	12/3/2003 10:57:01 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Union Leaders Want Gephardt Aide Fired Labor Chiefs Allege Retaliation Threats By Dan Balz Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, December 4, 2003; Page A06 The presidents of the nation's two largest unions angrily demanded that Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) dismiss one of his senior advisers yesterday, charging that she threatened to try to retaliate if their unions campaigned for former Vermont governor Howard Dean in Missouri. Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), whose unions have endorsed Dean, charged that, at a meeting Monday that included Missouri Gov. Bob Holden (D), Joyce Aboussie, the vice chair of Gephardt's presidential campaign, issued an "ultimatum" to representatives of the two unions. The ultimatum, McEntee and Stern said, also included demands that AFSCME and the SEIU use none of their Missouri members to campaign for Dean in Iowa, that the unions make no independent expenditures in Missouri for Dean and that they not communicate with their Missouri members about Dean's candidacy. If the unions did not abide by the demands, the two union presidents said, Aboussie said she would send a letter to the Republican leaders of the Missouri House and Senate, signed by some Democratic state representatives and senators, calling for the repeal of the governor's executive order providing state workers with collective-bargaining rights. "This was an unconscionable and outrageous act," McEntee and Stern wrote to Gephardt. "You should disassociate yourself from Ms. Aboussie, immediately remove her from your campaign and issue a written retraction of her threats." Gephardt, campaigning in California, did not respond to the letter. Campaign manager Steve Murphy issued a statement that did not address the substance of the charges but reaffirmed Gephardt's support for collective-bargaining rights of public employees in Missouri and nationally. "As president, Dick Gephardt will continue to lead the fight for the rights of America's workers to organize and collectively bargain," he said. Holden's office also issued a statement trying to escape any fallout, affirming his support for Gephardt's candidacy while adding: "It is my hope that all my friends who believe in the rights of workers can resolve their differences." Aboussie has worked for Gephardt for 27 years, according to the campaign, and has often clashed with members of his Washington staff. She is primarily a fundraiser for Gephardt's presidential campaign. McEntee and Stern said the other participants in the Monday meeting were Holden's chief of staff; Gephardt's Missouri campaign director, Grant Williams of the SEIU; and Mark Jones of AFSCME. Bill Carrick, one of Gephardt's top advisers, said, "Dick Gephardt wasn't aware of the meeting, did not tell Joyce Aboussie to attend the meeting, and she was not sent to the meeting at the behest of Dick Gephardt or anybody in the campaign." Carrick said Aboussie described the meeting as a discussion of Missouri politics in which she told the Missouri union leaders that there was "a lot of bitterness" over the AFSCME and SEIU endorsement of Dean, given Gephardt's support of collective-bargaining rights of state employees. "If anyone felt threatened by what I said, I apologize," Aboussie said in a statement issued by the campaign. Carrick also said: "This is Presidential Politics 101. These are Dean supporters who are trying to stir up something in behalf of their candidate and trying to blow something out of proportion. There's not much to it, in reality." The exchanges underscored the anger generated by the AFSCME and SEIU decisions to endorse Dean, rather than Gephardt, a longtime labor champion during his quarter-century in the House, as well as the growing tension between the Gephardt and Dean campaigns. Gephardt and Dean are in a fierce battle in Iowa, the first major contest of the 2004 nominating season. Gephardt has the endorsement of 20 international unions, but AFSCME's and SEIU's support for Dean has given him a potentially important boost.