Some Unions Urge the Unthinkable: Reach Out to the GOP

LAS VEGAS – As organized labor quarrels about how to reverse its declining influence, one union chief is offering a prescription that has caused some of his colleagues to recoil in disgust: that big labor try reaching out to Republicans.“The principle is simple: If you’re with us, then we’re with you,” the president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, Harold Schaitberger, said in an interview. “We shouldn’t be taken for granted by any party, and we shouldn’t be owned by any party. What we should be doing is working to build a pro-worker and a pro-union majority. That majority can be made up of whoever is with us.”Mr. Schaitberger, who spent 12 years as a Washington lobbyist for his union, said that in closed-door meetings here this week he pressed labor’s leadership to adopt a more bipartisan approach. “I’m not new at this, and I’m going to be a strong and continuing voice to push the federation and as many affiliates as I can influence,” he said.The response to Mr. Schaitberger’s suggestion has not always been polite. “Some are hostile,” he said. “This gets me in trouble.”The firefighters are in one respect an unlikely group to be sounding the call for greater outreach to the GOP. No union was more closely allied with the unsuccessful Democratic presidential nominee, Senator Kerry. At nearly every campaign event, Mr. Kerry was flanked by firefighters wearing the union’s gold and black T-shirts.“John Kerry had a 20-year track record with us that was almost 100%,” Mr. Schaitberger said. “The president had failed us on policy, legislative, and program issues throughout his tenure.”Mr. Schaitberger said his union makes its political decisions based on issues like a candidate’s willingness to support greater homeland security funding for so-called first responders, such as firefighters and paramedics. “That’s why we can be working so hard against George Bush for president, but supported Jeb Bush very strongly in Florida for governor,” the union chief said.Mr. Schaitberger said his union recently worked with House Speaker Dennis Hastert to enact a bill making sure survivors’ benefits are paid when a firefighter dies from a stroke or heart attack suffered within 24 hours of working.The hotel, restaurant, garment, and laundry worker’s union, Unite Here, is also calling for a more bipartisan approach.“I believe that the labor movement’s political program has to stop being an appendage of the Democratic Party,” the president of the union’s hospitality wing, John Wilhelm, said yesterday.Mr. Wilhelm said most union support would still likely go to Democrats, but Republicans who back labor on issues should also be rewarded at the polls. “That’s part of preventing the Democratic Party from taking the labor movement so much for granted, which it does,” he said.In Washington next week, the firefighters and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades are to sponsor a reception for GOP members of the freshman class in Congress.When the union most identified with Mr. Kerry’s campaign and the union most committed to the presidential campaign of Howard Dean join together to toast the new crop of Republicans, the spectacle may be a bit jarring to some.One union chief who doesn’t plan to attend is the head of the Communication Workers of America, Morton Bahr. He said his union has backed some moderate Republicans, but sees little point in lending a hand to more conservative ones.“For me to contribute money to people who vote 10 times in 10 against us? You know, I think it’s ridiculous,” Mr. Bahr said. He said most Republicans are not willing to risk the wrath of the House’s majority leader, Thomas DeLay.“On gut issues, Tom DeLay is going to call the shots,” Mr. Bahr said. He said lawmakers who stray toward labor on certain votes are targeted by GOP leaders. “You lose your chairmanship if you have one. They’ll even take you off the committee. If you keep it up, you’ve got a primary, with [opposition from] the Club for Growth,” he said.One man who could be viewed as a casualty of such pressure paid a visit to labor’s Las Vegas confab this week.A former GOP congressman from the Buffalo area, Jack Quinn, laughed when asked if he ran into any other Republicans in the halls. “I didn’t see any other Republicans while I was there, no,” he said.Mr. Quinn, who chose not to run for re-election last year, said that while labor may not be able to get much support from Republicans, it needs whatever it can get.“When it’s as close as it’s been for the last 10 years, unions need some Republican votes,” he said. Mr. Quinn, who is now a lobbyist in Washington, said Republicans who represent districts that are home to lots of union members are always receptive to labor’s pitch.A powerful union that represents health-care workers in New York now splits its political donations between the major parties, as many major corporations do. Last year, Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union gave $168,800 to the state Assembly Democrats’ campaign fund and an equal amount to the Senate Republicans’ war chest.The Service Employees’ national union has also donated more than $500,000 to the Republican Governors Association in recent years, though the labor group gave nearly twice as much to Democratic governors.“I do not put my faith in elected officials of either party to change the lives of our members alone,” the president of the Service Employees, Andrew Stern, told reporters Wednesday.The talk of labor’s outreach to the GOP and of a possible de-emphasis on politics generally has caused some consternation in Democratic circles.“The fate of the Democratic Party and the fate of labor are intertwined,” the Democrats’ new chairman, Dr. Dean, said Tuesday after speaking to union leaders here.Mr. Schaitberger argued that the Democrats have often been less loyal to labor than labor has been to the Democrats. “A lot of my colleagues in the industrials are still, you know, very bitter toward the last Democratic administration that they felt abandoned them on many of the trade policies,” he said.Mr. Schaitberger noted that 19 states do not allow government employees to engage in collective bargaining. “Over time, over years, over decades, many of those states have had Democratic-controlled legislatures, Democratic governorships, and we’re still looking for bargaining rights,” he said.Still, Democrats remain friendlier to labor on most issues, Mr. Schaitberger acknowledged. But he said that if the party frets a bit over the unions’ flirtation with the GOP, that’s fine with him.“Howard Dean didn’t really like what I had to say to him early on in the primary, and he probably won’t particularly like some of these comments,” Mr. Schaitberger said.

Some Unions Urge the Unthinkable: Reach Out to the GOP

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