Nevada: Labor Unions Withhold Presidential Endorsements
According to Fox News.com:
LAS VEGAS — The state that was intended to highlight union strength in the Democratic presidential nomination process instead is putting the spotlight on labor’s largest fear: Picking the wrong horse.
Nevada’s biggest unions have been unexpectedly hesitant to endorse ahead of the state’s first early presidential caucus, which will be held Jan. 19.
The situation reflects a national trend in which several major unions have been reluctant to pick sides in the Democratic race as they eye the larger prize — winning in November. The skittishness is all the more evident in Nevada, a state that won its first-ever early caucus slot partially based on its high union density. Democrats have hailed the Nevada caucus as the first test of labor support.
Yet less than a month before the caucus, Nevada’s three biggest unions are still on the sidelines.
The 60,000-member Culinary Workers Union, Local 226, the biggest political powerhouse, has said it plans to follow its national union UNITE-HERE and wait until “early January” to endorse — likely letting the Jan. 3 Iowa caucus crown a front-runner first.
The Nevada State Education Association, with its 28,000 members, is expected to sit out the nomination race entirely. The Service Employees International Union, representing 17,500 health care and county workers, continues to take steps toward making an endorsement, but acknowledges in the end there may be no endorsement....click to continue.
