(((((Breaking News)))) Gephardt Gets Teamster Endorsement

Labor support is vital in caucus states because they can flood the caucuses.

Also, they can get out the vote like no one else.

Gephardt's not my first choice but he's an economic liberal in the tradition of FDR, Truman, and LBJ.

He's one of the good guys.....

Or was that just Mini-Hoffa!

and Dick Gephardt go way back.

I think they went to law school together.

bush didn't want to soil himself with Union endorsements?
Hoffa hates overtime?

Writing from Detroit area. Teamsters? who cares? I mean, they're still trying to dig up Big Hoffa's body out here.

That's huge.

I just don't trust James Hoffa at all.

By not being present to vote against Bush's proposed changes to who is paid overtime Gephardt turned his back on working people.

What a lot of people tend to forget is that union members in the US represent very little of the PRIVATIZED work force.
"The percentage of American workers belonging to unions fell last year (2000) to 13.5 percent, its lowest point in six decades."
For unions, one embarrassing aspect of the report was that the membership among private-sector workers fell to 9 percent, down from 9.4 percent in 1999. That has left unions with strong bargaining leverage in a handful of industries, including aircraft, steel and autos.
In contrast, membership among government workers rose to 37.5 percent, up from 37.3 percent. About 9.1 million of the nation's union members work in the private sector, while 7.1 million are government workers."
(From a January 2001 article at: http://www.numbersusa.com/text?ID=419)

Now most GOVERNMENT jobs are unionized but not those in the PRIVATE sector. Since most people work in the private sector I think Gephardt's no show on July 10 will speak volumes to them. I know it has with me.

A worker with NO union protection.

running with a realistic shot of winning.

Not sure the full AFL is ready just yet. This is a nice boost and may help, but not sure their all ready to come on-board yet. Some very big ones are still one the sidelines like SEIU, AFSCME, USWA, CWA, AFT, UAW. I'm sure some of these may break for Dick, but maybe not all.

Gephardt definitely has worked for these endorsements and its good to see these unions showing to elected officials all across this country that standing with them means something.

Not really sure what kind of pull the Teamsters still have. I hear they're still solid at the grassroots level, so that'll help. But Gephardt needs help in the fundraising aspect. These endorsements, which will probably only continue and a good 3rd quarter would demonstrate that Gep is right back to where he was just after releasing that health care plan--a very serious possibility for the nomination.

They are fucking traitors. When they built their brand new Union Hall in Houston they used non-union labor. They threw way more votes to the red ink republicans than Nader ever thought of doing.

please continue here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=45338&mesg_id=45338

thanks

dwickham