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Union endorses Hillary
29/08/2007 11:57 - (SA)
Washington - Democratic presidential
front-runner Hillary Clinton picked up the first national labour
endorsement of the 2008 White House race on Tuesday, winning
the support of the 125 000-member United Transportation Union.
The union, which represents active and retired members of
the railroad, bus and public transit industries, said it would
devote "considerable resources" to backing the New York senator
in the 2008 race.
"The UTU has a long history of picking winners early.
Hillary will be a president that America's working families can
count on," said union president Paul Thompson.
The UTU is the first of many labour unions expected to throw
their grass roots and financial muscle behind a candidate over
the next few months.
The AFL-CIO, an umbrella group representing 55 labour
unions, freed its members to back a contender earlier this
month when its executive council could not reach the two-thirds
consensus needed for an endorsement by the full federation.
Democratic candidate Chris Dodd, a Connecticut senator who
has lagged his top rivals in opinion polls, is expected to win
the endorsement of the firefighters union on Wednesday. The
union was an early and influential backer of Democratic nominee
John Kerry in the 2004 race.
Dodd and Harold Schaitberger, president of the
International Association of Fire Fighters, will conduct a
three-day tour of early voting states Iowa, New Hampshire and
Nevada this week, Dodd's campaign office said.
Clinton holds a big lead over her 2008 Democratic rivals in
national polls five months before the first nominating contests
are scheduled and more than 14 months ahead of the November
2008 presidential election.
But top rivals Barack Obama, an Illinois senator, and John
Edwards, the 2004 vice presidential nominee, also have made
strong pushes for labour support.
Union officials said Clinton's support for labour issues and
union members, and her performance at an AFL-CIO-sponsored
debate earlier this month, clinched the transportation union
endorsement.
The union's support for Clinton and her husband, former
President Bill Clinton, dated to Bill Clinton's 1978 campaign
for governor of Arkansas, a union official said.
Hillary Clinton said she was honoured to pick up the UTU's
support.
"America's workers have been invisible to this
administration, and it's time they had an advocate in the White
House," she said.
- Reuters
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