Mark Penn Union Buster

January 9, 2008, 2:14 pm
Obama Receives Union Endorsements

By Steven Greenhouse

After suffering a setback in New Hampshire, Senator Barack Obama received some welcome news today from two powerful labor unions in Nevada.

Unite Here, which is by far the most powerful union in Nevada, announced its endorsement of Mr. Obama this afternoon. Unite Here’s Nevada local, Culinary Local 226, represents more than 60,000 casino, hotel and restaurant workers, and is a power in local and state political races and is expected to be a powerful force in the January 19 caucuses.

With its announcement, Unite Here, which represents 460,000 hotel, restaurant, apparel and laundry workers nationwide, became the first national union to back Mr. Obama. Its leaders hope to help put him over the top in the Nevada caucuses and give his campaign new momentum.

“Barack Obama has shown us that he understands our members’ struggles and dreams,” said D. Taylor, the Secretary-Treasurer of Culinary Local 226. “He stood with our union in every step of our recent contract negotiations and showed us that he too understands that organizing and bringing people together is how we move forward.”

The parent union’s 12-person executive committee voted to endorse Mr. Obama in an 11 p.m. conference call on Tuesday following the New Hampshire primary, which the union’s leaders had expected Mr. Obama to win.

During the summer and early fall, several of the union’s top leaders had sought to give Senator John Edwards Unite Here’s endorsement, but the union’s executive committee failed to muster enough support for an Edwards endorsement. Nonetheless, many Unite Here locals campaigned for Mr. Edwards.

“We tried to help Senator Edwards in New Hampshire, but now it’s down to a two-person race,” said Bruce Raynor, United Here’s president. “We like those two candidates. They’re both friends. The choice is do you watch the process any further or do you try to influence it.”

In explaining today’s endorsement, Mr. Raynor added, “We’re excited by what Barack Obama represents in America, Maybe for the first time we’ve gone beyond race in presidential politics. He’s not a black candidate. He’s a candidate. He’s also energized a part of the electorate that we believe is necessary to change America, and that’s the nation’s young people.”

Late Tuesday, the Nevada state council of the Service Employees International Union announced its endorsement of Mr. Obama. The Nevada council represents 17,500 workers.

Nationwide, the Service Employees International Union, with 1.9 million members, is so badly divided that it had been unable to agree on an overall endorsement. It had instead freed its state chapters to make endorsements. About a dozen have backed John Edwards while a few have supported Hillary Clinton. With the Nevada endorsement, five of S.E.I.U.’s state councils have endorsed Mr. Obama.

No national unions had endorsed Mr. Obama until today, largely because union leaders were more attracted to Mr. Edwards because he vigorously courted unions by taking outspokenly pro-union stances. Moreover, many unions also backed Mrs. Clinton largely because of their long ties to the Clintons and because union leaders often like backing a front-runner.

Many union leaders say that they liked Mr. Obama and his views, but that he was the new kid on the block and did not have the strong ties to him that they had to Mr. Edwards and Mrs. Clinton.

Unite Here has been in a dispute with Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign because its pollster and chief strategist, Mark Penn, heads a public relation firm that has represented the Cintas Corporation, a large industrial laundry company that has vigorously battled the union’s efforts to organize 17,000 Cintas workers.

Mr. Raynor said that dispute was just a small factor in why his union endorsed Mr. Obama.

“I gather Mark Penn is still involved in the campaign, which is very unfortunate,” Mr. Raynor said. “Senator Clinton is a good person and a good friend, but we just disagree about Mark Penn.”

Unite Here officials say their union will be a power in the South Carolina primary on January 19 because the union is one of the strongest in that state as a result of its long-time history in the apparel and textile industry. Unite Here is the successor union to the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union and the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. Mr. Raynor said Unite Here has nearly 6,000 active members and retirees in the state.