Edwards piles up unions' support

[JohnLocke]

Edwards piles up unions' support
Bonior's efforts help candidate win endorsements
By Mary Rae Bragg--(Dubuque, Iowa) Telegraph Herald
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How John Edwards does in the race to become the Democrats' 2008 presidential nominee could be an indication of the state of labor unions in the United States.

On Thursday, Edwards picked up the endorsement of the Iowa Postal Workers Union, after getting the nod early in the week from 10 state councils of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), including Iowa's. He already had endorsements from United Steelworkers, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, United Mine Workers of America and Transport Workers Union of America.

On Friday, California's SEIU came on board, which Edwards' campaign said put his union support at more than 3 million members.

Edwards signaled his intent to go after union support from the start of his campaign when he appointed former congressional Democratic Whip David Bonior as his campaign manager.

During the 26 years Bonior represented his Michigan district in Congress, he earned a reputation as advocate for working families, fair trade, jobs and human and civil rights. He retired from the House in 2002 and now serves as a professor of labor studies at Wayne State University, in Detroit, and is chairman of American Rights at Work, a Washington-based group organized to defend workers' right to organize.

Bonior has been putting in plenty of time in Iowa in recent weeks and on Thursday, while he was working the Fort Dodge area, he spoke by phone about how things were going.

Bonior contends that 70 percent of Edwards' supporters from his 2004 presidential run are still with him as he campaigns on his "One America" platform.

"One America has captured a lot of people," Bonior said. "That's what worked four years ago, getting him 32 percent of the (Iowa caucus) vote. Now he's laying out more detail about it."

Bonior said he became interested in Edwards after the candidate's strong showing in the Iowa 2004 caucus. He went to New Hampshire to hear Edwards speak there, "talking from his gut" about things that Bonior also holds dear. His support really solidified after Edwards lost the nomination to John Kerry, Bonior said, when he saw Edwards help with more than 240 union-organizing drives across the nation.

Edwards' record of supporting unions resulted in growing union support for him, Bonior said. "They are coming to his aid because he came to their aid."

Bonior said he considers the Iowa race a three-way dead heat, which he said is an indication of his candidate's strength, since Edwards has spent nothing on TV ads, while the other front-runners, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, have spent millions.

"It's all coming together," Bonior said. "Nobody else can do a better job winning, particularly in swing states like Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio."

http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=177513

[surfermaw]

1. These words few have heard, or don't want to here.

Bonior said he considers the Iowa race a three-way dead heat, which he said is an indication of his candidate's strength, since Edwards has spent nothing on TV ads, while the other front-runners, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, have spent millions.


John Boy , knows how to wisely spend the money, and he will do this with our Tax dollars...Run John Run, when the unions are beaten down in this nation, a recession usually followers, some times it take a year or two, and them it can take a little longer , like after Reagan and Bush when the recession fell on Big Bush

Remember Harding and Coolidge, and union bashing, and then the depression in the late 20' early 30's. It will happen every time, This nation need union members to keep the corporates honest.

[surfermaw]

2. This shows the crookidness of the media

Failure to give information on this one fact,show the nation, who they should be voting for...Corporate America is going to do their best to defeat Edwards.