Marathon Pundit: Pandering for union votes, and money, in Iowa

The last time I checked, labor unions represented about 11 percent of the work-force, just seven percent of those working in the private sector. But that didn't stop a whole bunch of Democrats, including frontrunners Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards from a Cedar Rapids, Iowa labor forum where they fished for support.

As I blogged here and here last week, union leaders in Michigan, despite shrinking membership rosters, for the most part aren't cutting their own pay or seeing the need to cut their staff.

Unions still remain reliable sources, for now, of cash (from workers' dues) and votes for the Democratic Party.

On the latter, I'd like to add this anecdote. A friend of mine confided in me about his father:

They told my Dad at the union hall to vote Democratic. When he first came to this country, he barely spoke English, and he did as he was told. When he later found out what the Democrats represented, he began secretly voting Republican, but told the bosses he was still a 'good member' each election day.

In short, the union vote, and research backs me up, is soft, especially at the top of the ticket.

Cash is different. And the unions, with the exception of those such as SEIU and AFSCME that have many public sector members, must know that at some level, and maybe it's soon, they won't have enough people paying dues for their organizations to have an impact. The money just won't be there.

But it's there now, hence the "pander fest" that took place yesterday in Cedar Rapids yesterday.

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