Saturday, June 21, 2008

UAW Dumps On Thompson's Unity Convention

Wow. One of the state's largest labor unions, the United Auto Workers, met at the Indiana Democratic Convention today and voted not to endorse Jill Long Thompson for governor. Brian Howey of Howey Politics writes:

The United Auto Workers have refused to endorse the gubernatorial campaign of Jill Long Thompson. According to Danny Ernstes, chairman of the Marion County UAW CAP Council, the UAW met at the Indiana Democratic Convention this morning and voted not to endorse the Democratic nominee. While Thompson has said she would reinstitute collective bargaining, has has refused a UAW request for retroactive action that would give power back to UAW locals. The UAW vote could be a blow to the Thompson-Oxley ticket because it has a network of field operations vital to any Democratic gubernatorial nominee. The Democrats needed to come away from today’s convention with the perception of unity. The UAW played an integral part of the field operations of the Jim Schellinger gubernatorial campaign as well as for past Democratic nominees.

Several unions, including the FOP, firefighters and sheet metal workers, have already endorsed Gov. Mitch Daniels for re-election. The failure of Thompson to win the backing of the UAW is a big setback for her uphill campaign. And the theme of the Democrats' convention today was unity.

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