One of Hillary Clinton's biggest champions in labor during the primary, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), endorsed Barack Obama for president today. At the height of the primary contest, AFSCME was not only a fierce advocate for Hillary Clinton, but also a harsh critic of Barack Obama, so this endorsement serves as a sort of microcosm of the larger shift that we're seeing toward Obama by Hillary supporters. But as for many, this shift did not come lightly.

WaPo's The Trail spoke with AFSCME president Gerald McEntee, who was one of Obama's more vocal critics.

Today, McEntee sounded a much different note as he announced that his union -- the largest in the AFL-CIO, with 1.5 million members -- had endorsed Obama after supporting Hillary Clinton in the primary. "Barack Obama has mobilized a historic movement to reclaim the greatness of America," McEntee said. "With his leadership, our nation will rise up to rebuild the middle class at home and restore America's reputation in the world."

Obama, McEntee added, "is a proven fighter on the issues our members care about most, such as ending privatization, providing state and local fiscal relief, fully funding and supporting public services and the workers who provide them, and guaranteeing that everyone in our country has access to quality, affordable health care they can count on."

Asked about the change in his estimation of Obama from one month ago, McEntee said that he and other AFSCME officials had changed their views of the candidate after extensive meetings with his staff and with Obama himself in Washington yesterday and today. "We've had an opportunity ... to sort out our differences to move ahead," he said. "We have changed positions [on Obama]. He's more sure-footed. We fought like hell for Hillary, no question about that, and at times it was tough on the campaign trail, but now we're prepared and ready" to back Obama.

Today's endorsement is further evidence of a swiftly uniting Democratic Party behind Barack Obama and as if you needed even more proof, Fox News brings us this result from its latest national poll:

Most Clinton supporters strongly back Obama -- 68 percent, up from 47 percent in April. Still, 17 percent say they would vote for McCain if the election were today, and 15 percent are undecided.

We can expect that number to grow larger as Hillary Clinton starts appearing on Barack Obama's behalf as the summer progresses.

McEntee Calls on Democrats to Seat Florida Delegates

AFSCME president calls for delegates elected in today's Florida primary to be seated at the Democratic National Convention.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Gerald W. McEntee, President of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, today called on the Democratic Party to seat delegates elected in today's Florida primary at the Democratic National Convention.  McEntee said:

"The voice and votes of Democrats in Florida should be heard.  While the candidates did not campaign in Florida, the voters have turned out and sent a clear message that they want a new direction for this country.  When the Democrats gather in Denver this summer, the voters of Florida should not be left out.  The delegates elected from Florida should be seated as full participants in the convention."

With 80% of precincts reporting, more than 1.5 million Florida Democrats have made their voices heard, now it is time for the Democratic National Committee to make their votes count.

Here's the link to the AFSCME press release: "McEntee Calls on Democrats to Seat Florida Delegates"

Update [2008-1-29 22:55:34 by andrewalker08]:: Let me just point out that it's not just Hillary's Florida votes that won't count; it's also Barack Obama's Florida votes that won't count either. Democrats allocate their delegates by proportional methods and tonight, Barack Obama received 33% of the vote. That means he's entitled to 33% of Florida's delegates. Now, who here wants to say that the 33% of Florida Democrats that voted for Barack Obama don't deserve to have their votes counted in Denver this August.

(crossposted at onemillionstrong.us) 

I'm not at all surprised to see AFSCME leaders from Illinois and Iowa call the national AFSCME flier for what it is: hypocritical. 

My husband just brought in the mail. Almost every day we receive something from a presidential candidate or two. Today we got a mailer attacking Barack Obama's health care plan. The American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees produced and paid for the mailing.

More details are after the jump.

I'm still trying to process all that I've seen so far, both at the AFSCME forum and Take Back America, and I'll be writing some more stuff all of this later this afternoon, but for now, consider this an open thread... What's on your mind?

This coverage is sponsored by AFSCME, one of the largest and fastest growing unions in the United States representing over 1.4 million employees, primarily in local and state government and in the health care industry.

While Jerome is over at Take Back America, I'm down the street at the second presidential being put on by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. (For my coverage of the previous AFSCME forum for MyDD, click here.) Confirmed candidates include Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson, and today's moderator is Chris Matthews. The format is a 3-minute opening statement, 12 minutes of questions and then a 2-minute closing statement.

Candidate writeups below the fold.

This is awesome.

This is an open thread.  What's your favorite youtube clip?

Reminders are just everywhere that the gut reaction of many Americans to unions, and the labor movement more broadly, is often quite negative. I'm right now at SXSW Interactive in Austin. This afternoon was a panel on the creation and distribution of video content online. When a questioner from a major content producer asked the panel -- all professionals in web video -- if they had a plan for eventually grappling with the Screen Actors Guild, ASCAP, and other performers' unions, one of the panelists jumped right in with a story of how he was injured as a younger man while working in a union shop and his shop steward didn't bother to call to see how he was. Sigh. Labor writ large has a public image problem. Frankly, I don't know if they are taking the right steps to address it.

It's at risk of death by a thousand cuts, it seems. The blog debate this week was about wages. George Mason economist Tyler Cowen cites a paper by John DiNardo and David Lee to argue that "unions really really don't matter that much these days..." Why's that? DiNardo and Lee found, Cowen says, that the wage differences in employment situations where the union just barely won or just barely lost the election were minimal, near zero. Proof, Cowen says, that when it comes to unions, "there simply isn't that much there." I'm no economist, but that doesn't ring true to me. Kevin Drum says I'm right -- common sense and years of research would have to be very far off for DiNardo and Lee to be right. Besides, Cowen's own commenters point out that the unions that barely squeak into existence aren't well-poised to force real big wage concessions. And wages may be inflated even in non-union shops: employers facing an union drive may boost pay checks in the hopes of staving off organizing.

In a way, wages are besides the point. Unions do much more than grow paychecks. Collective bargaining brings health and retirement benefits. Unions give workers a voice in the workplace that can stem employer excesses and abuses. Organized workers have more job security. I've mentioned here a few times that in January I went out to Chicago with the AFL-CIO to observe the organizing drive by workers at the Resurrection hospital chain. The chief complaint there wasn't compensation. For nurses, it was staffing ratios. For other workers, it was having a say in how the hospital was run and how employees were treated.

I interviewed a woman named Araceli Romero. That's her to the right. Araceli's worked in the laundry room at the Resurrection flagship hospital for seven years. She was once a nurse in Mexico, and a leader in the student movement in Mexico City before that. Araceli makes about $9.50 an hour (and pays $97.75 every two weeks for health insurance -- she showed me her pay stub). But she wasn't ticked off about the money. They treat us like "animales del trabajo," "work animals," she said. What she wants? A return to way the laundry used to work, where 8-hour shifts were split into two task rotations. Araceli spends now eight hours a day doing the same repetitive motions, pulling wet laundry from industrial sized washing machines, detangling it, and stuffing it into dryers.

It's not just about wages. Unions bring better workplaces conditions. They agitate for worker safety, for fair scheduling. Unions give employees of every station a voice in the workplace. Union reps help employees file ULPs (Unfair Labor Practice complaints) with the NLRB. Right when I was out in Chicago, AFSCME organizers were pushing OSHA to hold a Resurrection facility responsible for a spill that exposed workers to mercury. In some ways, pumping up paychecks is the least of what unions do.