Leading lights of the American trade union movement, AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organisations), enjoyed the sun, surf, and sand of Miami Beach, Florida, this week while discussing how to restore control of the House of Representatives to Democrats and moderate Republicans.
Republicans denounced their proposals. One called it "ironic" that the "union bosses are meeting in sunny Miami and staying at fine resorts plotting to buy influence . . . rather than using union dues to improve the quality of lives of their hard-working members". He said Americans were being warned by "the liberal elite and unions" that they will "attempt to buy the next Congress to install their agenda of back-room politics".
Gerald McEntee, chairman of the AFL-CIO political committee, had another view: "We're starting much earlier to re-engage people over our legislative issues. Hopefully, we'll be able to move that kind of enthusiasm and action into the year 2000 campaign."
In the next election labour Democrats will concentrate on six industrial states heavily populated by trade unionists: Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In a presidential election, the Democratic candidate must take almost all of these states to win.
The presidents of the 54 unions which form the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO, which has approximately 13 million members, attended the Miami conference. Each member will contribute a dollar this year and next year to the federation's election fund, said John J. Sweeney, AFL-CIO president. About $46 million will go to electoral candidates and campaign committees.
"The AFL-CIO plans to target 75 key congressional districts in this year's elections in an effort to win back Democratic control of the House," the Washington Post reported on Thursday. "Privately, union leaders have written off any hopes of winning back Democratic control of the Senate, but they believe they have a legitimate chance to reverse the Republican majority in the House."
Not all recipients of AFL-CIO aid will be Democrats, although most will lean that way. Friends of labour in the Republican Party, such as Congressman Peter King, of New York, will be boosted.
Hillary Rodham Clinton will have labour support if she decides to seek Daniel Patrick Moynihan's soon-to-be-vacant senate seat in New York. She may not want the seat. Gaining seniority, which gives a senator political muscle, is a tedious process.
New York is a hard state to win.
Jack Quinn, a Buffalo, New York, Republican and AFL-CIO "Man of the Year", was denounced for voting to impeach President Clinton. "He did so even though he considered the president a friend, even though he represents the most heavily Democratic district of any House Republican, and even though he had publicly opposed impeachment during his re-election campaign," the Washington Post commented.
"Democratic officials are calling him the most vulnerable Republican in the nation."
The AFL-CIO's new two-year budget is expected to be "roughly double the $21.5 million the federation spent in the 1998 elections," John Sweeney told the Washington Post. "Labour mobilised 25,000 activists in California last year, and if we can do it in California we can certainly do it in other states."
US labour will now try to put this ambitious programme into effect.