Pa. last big Dem battleground for unions

updated 4:09 p.m. ET April 1, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - The Pennsylvania primary is more than a contest between Democratic Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. It's a showdown between two rival factions in organized labor and whether they can deliver for their presidential candidate.

With by far the largest bloc of union voters remaining on the campaign calendar — 830,000 workers, the April 22 primary could demonstrate whether Clinton has expanded her edge over Obama among working-class voters and emerged as labor's decisive favorite for president. Or whether Obama has whittled her support to a virtual draw in a state where unemployment is at its highest in more than two years.

Each Democrat has the backing of a well-financed coalition of unions determined to produce a crucial victory for its preferred candidate — and in the process earn the enduring gratitude of the person it hopes will be the next president.

Clinton has a larger number of unions on her side: 12 AFL-CIO member unions — including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the American Federation of Teachers and the International Association of Machinists — and one Change to Win union, the United Farm Workers.

Obama is backed by some politically powerful unions as well: Change to Win's Teamsters, SEIU, UNITE HERE and United Food and Commercial Workers — as well as the Change to Win organization and five smaller AFL-CIO unions. Obama picked up the endorsement Tuesday from the 10,000-member Laborers District Council of Metro Philadelphia.

The AFL-CIO has not endorsed either candidate, focusing instead on criticism of Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain. The labor federation challenged McCain to talk with its workers about the economy during his April stops in Maryland, Arizona and Florida.

A divided outcome is certainly possible, but there's a mystery that could tip the balance: Two large unions that once backed departed candidate John Edwards — the steelworkers and mine workers — haven't decided whether to endorse Obama or Clinton.

Pennsylvania has the fourth highest total of union workers in the nation, and they will have a strong say in how more than 4.1 million Pennsylvania Democrats, a record registration, vote to allocate 158 delegates to the Democratic national convention.

Video Curry interviews Obama April 1: TODAY's Ann Curry spends a day on the campaign trail with Barack Obama and sits down with him to talk about the tight race with Hillary Clinton. Today show

In the American Federation of Teachers' basement call center in downtown Philadelphia last week, Elizabeth Jackson wore a Clinton T-shirt, a warm Phillies hat and a toothy grin as she made her pitch in a phone call to an Obama supporter. She chatted amicably, her smile getting wider by the second. After hanging up, she triumphantly placed a checkmark on her notepad and announced, "She said they're for Clinton," and grinned for a second before dialing a new person.

All around Pennsylvania, union members like Jackson are working their friends, families and complete strangers to secure votes for Clinton or Obama. The unions have a lot of prestige and bragging rights tied up in their endorsements — and perhaps better access to the next president. More AFL-CIO unions are on Clinton's side; the majority of rival Change To Win's unions are on Obama's.

In an appeal Tuesday to the AFL-CIO convention here, Clinton boasted about her work alongside labor on issues from extending unemployment insurance to collective bargaining rights. "I'll keep standing with you, fighting with you and speaking out for you every single day as president of the United States," Clinton told the meeting.

Obama was scheduled to address the convention on Wednesday.

"Whoever wins those primaries is going to have closer ties and working relationships with the unions that are on their side," said Richard Hurd, professor of labor studies at Cornell University.

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