Time's Mark Halperin: Obama Scores Major Iowa Labor Nod

UAW Region 4 Delegates Throw Support to Obama’s Campaign for President

DUBUQUE - Delegates of United Auto Workers Region 4, which includes 30,000 members and retirees in Iowa, voted today to support Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. The group announced its overwhelming support at the close of a weeklong conference where seven of the major Democratic presidential candidates addressed the group earlier this week.

“There are many talented Democrats in the presidential field this year, but Barack Obama is the leader who will bring the kind of change to Washington that America’s working men and women can believe in,” said UAW Local 442 (Webster City, IA) President Paul Erickson. “For the last two decades, working families have been able to count on Barack Obama to stand up for us and our values. We are supporting him, because we know he’ll do the same thing in the White House.”

During his speech to the group on Tuesday, Obama asked for the group’s support and vowed to change the divisive, partisan politics in Washington that have blocked progress on the issues that working people care about the most.

“Politics didn’t lead me to working folks - working folks led me into politics,” Obama said. “As President, I’ll stand up to the special interests and bridge the partisan divide, so that we can have universal health care in America, invest in our students and schools and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. I thank the men and women of UAW Region 4 for their strong support for our campaign to change Washington.”

UAW members said Obama’s ability to unite the country makes him the strongest candidate in the Democratic field and vowed to use the group’s widely respected organizational muscle to help him do well in the first-in-the-nation caucuses.

“Senator Obama’s ability to win the support of Republicans and Independents won’t just make him the strongest Democrat in the general election - it’ll make him the kind of President who can actually get things done for working Americans,” said Iowa UAW retiree Andy Anderson. “This endorsement is not about lending our name to his campaign. We’re committed to his campaign and are committed to doing the kind of hard work at the grassroots level that’ll be critical to his success on Caucus Night.”

Region 4 represents 64,000 active and 122,000 retirees in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

http://thepage.time.com/uaw-release-on-obama-endorsement/