UAW Will Hold Off on Endorsing Democrat

[February 04, 2008]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- The head of the United Auto Workers said Sunday his union will aggressively work to elect either Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama to the White House, but reiterated that it will not endorse either one for the Democratic nomination.

"The stakes in this election could not be any higher. Our jobs are on the line," UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said in a pre-Super Bowl address to about 1,000 union activists assembled here for a political conference.

The union leader, who helped broker a groundbreaking labor deal with Detroit's automakers last year, said workers would be motivated in November by the loss of more than 3 million manufacturing jobs since January 2001, a gaping budget deficit and the closing of thousands of factories across the country.

Gettelfinger reiterated the union's decision not to make an endorsement in the Democratic presidential primary, but called Clinton and Obama "friends" who would protect manufacturing jobs, support workers' right to organize and expand health care coverage.

The union decided in December against endorsing a presidential candidate, preventing local unions from issuing their own endorsements. Speaking to reporters, Gettelfinger declined to outline the union's strategy in the fall, but said, "we're going to spend a lot."

"You're going to see more groups coming together. It's not about dollars and cents," he said. "Clearly we cannot outspend people. But we can outwork them, and that's what we intend to do." The union has been a longtime stalwart for Democratic candidates in Michigan and throughout the country.

Gettelfinger said internal union polling has found that the most support any Republican presidential candidate received was about 2 percent.

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On the Net:

United Auto Workers: http://www.uaw.org/

[Associated Press; By KEN THOMAS]

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