Look For The Union Label

CHICAGO (Aug. 26) -- Bill Clinton says the era of big government is over. But you wouldn't know it at this week's Democratic convention, where unionized government workers are suiting up for battle against the Republicans.

At a rally, Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, fired up his members.

"We gotta remember in November, remember in November, what they tried to do to us for a period of two years," McEntee said, talking about their GOP opponents.

The AFSCME union alone claims 167 Democratic convention delegates. Only five states have more.

President Bill Clinton disappointed AFSCME when he signed the welfare reform bill last week, but they support him anyway. They expect him to push for a big federally funded jobs bill to soften the effect of new work requirements.

"We have high hopes that at this convention he will announce a new program -- welfare reform II -- where he will create real jobs, meaningful jobs for people on welfare, rather than jobs that just make work," McEntee said, to applause.

The National Education Association has 404 delegates at the convention. The union wants to keep federal aid flowing to public schools, and defeat Republican plans to institute tuition vouchers and eliminate the Department of Education. At his convention, Republican nominee Bob Dole blasted teacher' unions, tell them, "If education were a war, you would be losing it."

An NEA leader says that was a mistake.

"I believe our members are more motivated now," said Mary Elizabeth Teasley of the NEA, who described members as angry at Dole's comments. The NEA includes more than 2 million members, almost all of them college educated and attuned to politics.

Unions supply the Democratic party's foot soldiers. And this year they are unified, energized and on the march. The AFL-CIO says it plans to have at least 100 activists in every congressional district by election day. That's 435 districts. Rally Past disagreements with the Clinton Administration over NAFTA, other trade agreements and welfare reform are all but forgotten, and that's bad news for Republicans.

One Democratic delegate in every four is a union member, most of them from public sector unions. That's sheer political clout even new-style Democrats like Clinton can't ignore.

This story originally appeared on CNN's "Inside Politics."

Look For The Union Label

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