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Editor's Note: This is one of a series of interpretive articles on issues in the 72
**TABLE OF CONTENTS**
bldays and pass postage advertised expressed
By JEAN MORGAN
Kansas Stuff Writer
SORGLOFF
cott Spreeter
lepergerdes
loff
icate 1972
Organized labor enters the 1972 election weakened in influence and badly split over the issue of endorsing a presidential candidate.
Unionis are aware that whowens winner the presidency, labor is not likely to have a say in how they run it.
AFL-CIO President George Meany asked a special meeting of the federation's executive council July 13, to remain neutral on the proposal. The agreement agreed to the proposal by a vote of 27.1.
The executive council's decision barred any state or local AFL-CIO unit from supporting George McGovenn of Richard Nixon but permitted each of the 117 member unions to endorse a candidate according to his party. The bipartisan McGovenn. Most of the big AFL-CIO unions that have been politically active in the past were among these unions.
Since the AFL-CIO was formed in 1955, this is the first time that the Democratic organization's endorsement—an indication of how far both Meamy and McGovern have strained from traditional Democratic parties—are not on the same political wave length.
McGOVERI irritated Meany by not voting with the labor position on every issue before Congress. Meany is such an unrepentant hawk that he has referred to McGovern as "Mr. Surrender." He was horrified when McGovern was quoted as saying he would "beg" Hanoi to release the prisoners of his prison, and was equally insistent when labor was bypassed at the Democratic National Convention. He says he thinks McGovern is bound to lose, and he does not want labor to be tainted with defeat.
Meany has also developed a distrust of McGovern that aides feel can never be dispelled. The antagonism dates back to 1962, when McGovern ran for the Senate from South Dakota. Hard-pressed for cash in a tough campaign, he asked the AFL-CIO committee to appoint him. Meany who ordered: "Give him the money." With the loan, Meany concluded that he had another Senator who was safe for labor.
This turned out to be only partly true. McGovern flunked one crucial test. He voted against cutting off a filibuster that was preventing a vote to repeal the right-to-work provision of the Taft-Hartley Act—a sacred matter with labor. To Meany, he was an ingrate. He made no notable effort to conciliate the labor chieftain.
INSIDERS say that the AFL-CIO chief and some of the council members thought the Democratic party had been taken over by "new politics" groups. Labor, it was said, was turned out of the party it had supported over the years.
McGovern will be lacking the labor support that only a top-level endorsement can assure. Some sources estimate the value of a full AFL-CIO endorsement in the presidential campaign at $6 million to $10 million, primarily in funds and volunteer work furnished by COPE, the AFL-CIO's committee on Political Education.
MeGoven's strongest labor supporter is Leonard Woodcock, president of the independent United Auto Workers. The United Workers is the country's second largest union.
Jerry Wurf, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, now the AFL-CIO's sixth largest employer in the country, federation leader in the McGovern camp. Wurf, along with Woodcock and a small group of others in labor's high ranks, is in labor's dissident left—ant-inaction force that would oppose to McGovern's progressive programs.
But Woodcock, Wurf and other proMcGovern leaders like Paul Jennings of the International Union of Electrical Workers have criticized McGovern for strong union backing for McGovern.
This is only the second time in the Teamsters Union history that it has endorsed a Republican presidential candidate. The first time was in 1960 when James R. Hoffa, then the union's president, led the Teamsters in support of Nixon.
NIXON HAS gained more support from organized labor than any other Republican presidential candidate in American history. The nations' largest union, the independent
FEATURE
Nixon also has the endorsement of at least four other unions, and more than 12 presidents of national unions have given him personal support.
Teamsters Union, with 2.1 million members, is the largest labor unit endorsing Nixon. Teamster President Frank E. Fitzsimmonss supports Nixon's support for the re-election of Nixon.
When the Teamsmasters endorsed the president, it appeared to many people to be a political deal. Not only did the President facilitate the release of former Teamster Boss Jimmy Hofa from prison last year, but the White House also appointed Fitzsimmons to the Pay Board and to the board of directors of the Communications Satellite Corporation. Fitzsimons' wife, Mary Patricia, was placed on a federal arts commission. Charges of missing Teamster involvement against Frank Fitzsimons' son, Richard.
ON THE DAY the teamsters endorsed the President, the administration passed the word that it would no longer support a compulsory arbitration bill designed to prevent crippling transportation strikes. The reason given was that the bill stood no chance of being passed during this session of Congress.
In 1956, labor unions accounted for $1.8 million of all direct political spending for national-level candidates. Union contributions ran $3.8 million in 1964, and by 1968, the union share had risen to more than $6.6 million.
In addition, labor unions spend, and will be spending, millions more educating their members on campaign issues, registering voters, launching get-out-the-vote drives other political purposes that do not directly involve contributions to specific candidates.
In 1972, officials predict a further rise in union spending, perhaps approaching $10 million, on candidates for president and Congress.
LABOR FEUDS about the presidential race are expected to hurt labor's chances of retaining its strength in Congress. Therefore, labor officials are concentrating their efforts, most of them Democrats, who are seeking Senate and seat seats or state offices.
Politicians disagree on labor's ability to deliver votes in a presidential campaign, but unions have always been potent forces in providing manpower and money.
The AFL-CIO estimates that a change in 22 House seats and five Senate seats could swing the power balance to a coalition of Republicans and conservative Democrats. The senate could further liberal reaction against the Republican candidacy of Senator Barry Goldwater of
MORRIS KAY
The only Candidate for Governor with Solutions
to our Problems
MORRIS KAY STANDS FOR
A FULLER LIFE FOR SENIOR KANSANS
“One major goal must be to be concerned with a generation that has successfully brought our country through the most turbulent and challenging years, and that is why we are all following our fellow citizens over the age of 65, and 270,000 over 65. The 12 per cent of our state population in this category is ever-growing. This is the generation over 65 which has helped fight and win two world wars, helped overcome the Great Depression and helped build the strongest and most resilient people in the world.”
"I firmly agree with the late President Elsenwohner who once stated, 'Often our citizens, their skills, their wisdom and their experience.' All senior Kansans must believe that their service to their state has not been sufficient; they can never be any retirement from the responsibility of active citizens."
"The pledge of a Kay Administration to our Senior Kansans is this: Earn the opportunity for you to be in the community he or she chooses and the opportunity to enjoy that chosen life to the highest possible extent. And this means living in his home or place of work in the community, having every possibility of sharing significantly in the life of the community.
"Senior Kansans have done so much to make Kansas great, they have earned the respect of all of us who are young."
"Under a Kay Administration, older Kansans can look with concern to their state government as a partner and friend in meeting the problem."
"This is a basic right. I commit myself to working to ensure tms right.
"To help me implement my deep personal commitment to the more mature residents of Kansas, I propose to establish an independent Department of Aging within our State Government.
"11 also support federal efforts to establish longer pension vesting standards which would guarantee that employee benefits be able to switch companies which provide private pension plans without suffering losses in their pension investment."
Arizona resulted in a floodtide or Democratic victor Congressional victory.
Morris Kay . . . The man who will bring all Kansans together to build a still better State.
in the congressional races, labor money is going mainly to Democrats. The neutrality policy
Paid for by students for Kay Committee, Dave Murfin Co-Chairman.
For example, labor contributions to candidates for the Senate totaled $20,319 by Sept. 10. Of that sum, $186,769 has gone to the campaigns of 22 of the 33 Democrat candidates and remains at $33,550 was earmarked for the 33 Republicans seeking Senate seats.
How rank-and-file members of the unions will vote Nov. 7 remains the major question. In the past, many workers refused to in the advice of big union leaders who backed a state presidential nominee. Now, however, statewide ballot, split everything, points to a larger-than- usual labor vote for the Republican presidential nominee.
NOVEMBER 6 THRU 10
VISTA and the Peace Corps are looking for seniors and grad students with backgrounds in agriculture, home ec., law, business, architecture, teaching, and the sciences for assignments in the U.S. and overseas.
Recruiters will be in STRONG HALL and the Union
also in:
Business Placement Office—Nov. 6
Education Placement Office—Nov. 7
Education Placement Office—Nov. 7
Engineering Placement Office—Nov. 7
Law Placement Office—Nov. 8
Sign up for interviews
Use Kansan Classified
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