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SEIU Forfeits Its Leverage


None of the Democratic presidential primary contenders will get the endorsement they have been fervently seeking from the Service Employees International Union, an especially painful blow to John Edwards.

This is actually quite surprising. Edwards has been courting the SEIU for several years and is clearly the most pro-union candidate running. This is probably the death knell for the emerging populist movement. It was expected that if Edwards won Iowa (which was pretty likely) that the SEIU, which is the largest Union in the country, would help him through NH and Nevada. Labor has been in steady decline for 30 years.
more after the jump

"Any one of these candidates would help create a new American dream for workers and their families," SEIU Secretary Treasurer Anna Burger said.

This is just not leadership. I can't see how this decision leverages Labor's remaining strength. Of course the SEIU will endorse any Democratic candidate in the general election because there's nowhere else to go. Sure, Edwards candidacy was not inevitable with Labor behind him, but at a minimum, any of the other Democratic candidates (read HRC) would understand that they could not take the Labor block for granted. The next president will "owe" nothing to Labor. NAFTA is largely considered to be the largest contributer to the erosion of manufacturing jobs and Labor in recent history. NAFTA passed a Democratic House and Senate, and was signed into law by a Democratic president. Does the SEIU really believe that all of the candidates will be equally responsive to the needs of Labor?

The SEIU (and the AFL-CIO who are also not endorsing) may not have had the strongest hand, but they just folded and walked away from the table without ever playing a single hand.

On a side note, I wonder if the dynamic would have been different had there been clear support for one candidate by the leadership within the "Democratic Netroots."


stuart noble October 9, 2007 - 5:16am
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( categories: USA: Campaign 2008 )

Andy Stern

Bill Moyers brought SEIU to my attention with his interviews of Andy Stern, an articulate and engaging fellow.
SEIU+Moyers&btnG=Google+Search

Zuma October 9, 2007 - 7:11am
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quiet Bill October 9, 2007 - 7:24am
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death knell for the emerging progressive movement

ouch. that's harsh, but i'm inclined to agree.

for a while now, i've considered the "emerging movement" to be a test run. we're just not organized enough, we don't have enough leaders. the next few years for me as a activist will be about training a new class of leadership. because i don't think there will be much we will be able to get done.

and given the battle to the death the unions just went thru with GM, i'm not surprised they're pulling back. this is a time for progressive groups to rest and reflect, and conserve resources.

chicago dyke October 9, 2007 - 8:32am
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Populist not Progressive

chicago dyke,

Interesting idea you have about re-grouping, but I'm not exactly sure. It seemed like momentum favored Labor, so why not keep pushing forward?

I should clarify that I wrote, populist not progressive. I emphasize this because although there are many commonalities between the two, there are also significant differences. A progressive ruling coalition cannot exist without fairly broad populist support, which means strong, active, and most importantly, united Labor. The recent struggle and "victory" against GM was a wonderful recent example of the power of solidarity. The public is probably more sympathetic to organized labor in this election cycle than it has been in recent memory. Many pro-labor agendas are being promoted and pushed out into the campaigns (often because of Edwards). Everything seemed to be pointing towards forward momentum. I thought 2004 was the time to re-group for 2008. What happened? Is triangulation an infectious disease?

stuart noble October 9, 2007 - 9:33am
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All I know is, Edwards is

All I know is, Edwards is still more politically sophisticated than Obama. Edwards knows the only way to compete with Clinton is to carve out a different constituency, not compete with Clinton's, which Obama has. So Edwards has been trying to roll up Dick Gephardt and Howard Dean into one and present that as himself, while still retaining the Iowa support he got 4 years ago. If he can keep Clinton under 35% at the caucus and Obama slips some more, he can beat her there. And without the union endorsements, it'll be seen as a bigger victory to have overcome her at all. Possible and not entirely improbable.

Nominay October 9, 2007 - 11:57am
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