I'll get right to the news first. The largest industrial union in North America is endorsing John Edwards for president.
From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Former Sen. John Edwards will start his Labor Day in Pittsburgh to accept a presidential endorsement from the United Steelworkers.Mr. Edwards is expected to appear with United Steelworkers president Leo Gerard at a 9 a.m. rally at the Mellon Arena, the kickoff site for the city's annual Labor Day Parade.
This is huge not only because of the steelworkers large membership (1.2 million members), but because the USW is one of the more progressive unions out there (especially in the AFL-CIO), along with the UAW, UFCW, etc. They're one of the few unions that have explicitly sought out partnerships with major environmental groups as witnessed by their joint campaign with the Sierra Club to create good paying union jobs that are also green jobs. They're also pretty adamant about furthering the larger international labor movement (even going so far as to talk about merging with the UK's second largest labor union) in order to give workers a fighting chance against large multi-national corporations (and the governments that enable them). In short they're a great union and this is a great endorsement.
Now that Edwards has two big endorsements under his belt I think it will be much easier for the other major unions to go with their hearts and their minds and also endorse Edwards.
It actually would have been a huge surprise if the USW had not endorsed Edwards in the end given some of the union's major priorities such as ensuring that (i) all Americans have health care, (ii) inferior products stop flowing into our country due to inferior trade agreements (ahem... China). Edwards's priorities are a natural fit with the union's. And when you combine that with Edwards's vocal, and enthusiastic support of the labor movement throughout all aspects of the campaign (and not just at labor events), it's pretty clear that he should be the top choice.
Let's hope the other labor endorsements for Edwards start coming fast and furious now.
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