Bush defends decision to send nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain By SCOTT LINDLAW, AP
It was Bush's latest attempt to court a friendly labor union, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. Most labor unions lean strongly Democratic.
Labor unions mobilizing to help elect John Kerry By LEIGH STROPE, AP
Labor has much to offer Sen. John Kerry in his quest for the presidency: a massive voter mobilization machine that is backed by well more than $157 million and was fine-tuned by union leaders this week.
As payback, Kerry is refusing to cross picket lines and even wrote to a foreign company urging changes in unionization rules.
Six in 10 union households voted for Democrat Al Gore over George W. Bush in 2000. Mindful that every vote counts, organized labor is entrenched in 16 battleground states to push up Democratic turnout, even if it's by just several thousand.
The AFL-CIO and its two largest unions are spending $157 million alone on labor get-out-the-vote efforts. That figure doesn't include funds from the federation's other 58 unions or the multiple labor-backed, partisan groups known as 527s because of the tax code section they fall under.
The Service Employees International Union, for example, is spending $65 million to mobilize its members for Kerry, even though they preferred Howard Dean for president.
Why? 'Fear,' said President Andy Stern. 'Fear of George Bush in terms of what another four years will be like, and hope that John Kerry is going to bring health care and things our members are interested in.'