AP: Hillary Clinton to speak to Mich. union members
By DAVID EGGERT
June 8, 2007
Presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday will visit Michigan, where she hopes to court union voters who remain a key base for Democratic candidates.
The U.S. senator from New York chose Detroit as part of a national AFL-CIO campaign in which union members meet Democratic presidential candidates in town-hall style formats.
Her stop in the Motor City comes a month after rival Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, during a speech to the Detroit Economic Club, admonished U.S. automakers - which have large unionized work forces - for not producing fuel-efficient vehicles and falling behind foreign competitors.
Along with other Democrats, Clinton joined the leaders of General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and the Chrysler Group at a manufacturing luncheon in Washington on Wednesday. Her visit to Michigan will come ahead of an expected vote in the Senate on a plan to raise fuel economy standards, a key issue for the auto industry.
Lansing-based pollster Ed Sarpolus says now is an opportune time for Clinton's visit because she has a core base of support in the state and Michigan will be crucial next year, especially if she does not fare well in earlier primaries.
"Her message has resonated a lot better with union workers and minorities than Barack Obama's has," said Sarpolus, who gives another Democratic contender, John Edwards, the edge so far on having the most compelling message for union workers. "This is a good backup state for her depending on how she comes out of Iowa and New Hampshire."
The Detroit event also is a chance for Clinton to speak to a powerful union with members around the nation. Labor endorsements are important because unions are a key bloc in Democratic primaries and can provide grassroots volunteers.
Michigan AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney said the union will gauge to what degree Clinton and other candidates value American manufacturing. The union supports a "Marshall Plan" that would stimulate U.S. investment in and production of advanced-technology vehicles and parts.
"How can the federal government help manufacturers build engines and cars of the future and do it here in America? That takes a plan," Gaffney said.
Gaffney said Obama did not talk about such a concept and could have said more about helping manufacturers.
"But I'm sure he'll have another chance to come back to Michigan and do that," he said, adding that Democratic candidates should discuss foreign trade agreements, which he said have put millions of blue-collar workers at risk.
Obama struck a sour note with some U.S. automakers during his March speech to the Detroit Economic Club, saying the industry was "hemorrhaging jobs and profits as foreign competitors answer the rising global demand for fuel-efficient cars."
Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford Motor, said he was "very disappointed" by Obama's comments and invited him to the company's Chicago assembly plant, where the Ford Five Hundred, soon to be renamed Taurus, is built.
While Obama appears to have not yet totally connected with labor, it does not mean Clinton has been immune from her own problems with labor.
The New York Times reported this week that James Hoffa, president of the Teamsters, and Bruce Raynor, president of Unite Here, wrote a letter to Clinton criticizing her senior adviser, Mark Penn. Penn heads a public relations firm that so far has helped Cintas Corp., a uniform rental company, block efforts to unionize its workers.
The incident brought mixed reaction from the Washington-based liberal advocacy group Campaign for America's Future.
Co-director Roger Hickey said it is a serious problem and is "reflective of bringing the same old people into the White House."
Even so, the group's other co-director, Robert Borosage, said the unions probably won't attack her on the Penn issue.
"I don't think the public pays attention to this, so unless the unions or other candidates make a big issue of it I don't think it will be a big problem," Borosage said.
Organized labor spent some $100 million on get-out-the-vote efforts last year, and reached tens of millions of voters by phone calls, mail and door-to-door canvassing on behalf of labor-backed candidates.