Edwards gets fresh union, will oppose strike breakers
DES MOINES, Iowa, Sep 4 (Reuters) US Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards won labor union backing from steelworkers and mineworkers, putting him ahead of rivals in declared union support, his campaign said.
The former senator from North Carolina, endorsed by the carpenters' union on Thursday, now has the support of unions representing more than 1.8 million members and retirees, more than any other candidate in the November 2008 White House race, the campaign said yesterday.
Edwards picked up the backing of the United Steelworkers, which calls itself the largest U.S. private-sector industrial union with 1.2 million members and retirees, and the United Mine Workers of America, which represents 105,000 active and retired coal miners.
While campaigning in Des Moines on the Labor Day holiday, which honors American workers, he said that as president he would oppose strikebreakers.
''If the union, in order to show its strength and courage has to go out on strike and walk the picket line, when I'm president of the United States ... nobody ... will be able to walk through that picket line and take your job away from you,'' he said.
Edwards was Democrat John Kerry's vice presidential running mate in 2004.
He credited the labor movement with building the country's middle class and he said it was time for government to take steps to protect union workers.
''We have such important work to do in this country to create opportunity and 'One America' so that everybody actually has a chance in this country -- not just a few rich people, but every single working man and woman,'' Edwards said.
CLINTON ALSO IN IOWA Last week, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, with about 720,000 active and retired members, made its first-ever dual endorsement when it backed Democratic Sen.
Hillary Clinton, her party's front-runner, and Republican Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor.
Clinton, who also campaigned in Des Moines on Labor Day, said organized labor should be honored all year long.
''Unions gave dignity and respect and decent wages and working conditions to millions of Americans and we need to make sure that you have the right to organize and bargain collectively in the 21st century,'' she said.
Clinton has won the backing of the United Transportation Union, with 125,000 active and retired members, which on Aug. 28 became the first AFL-CIO union to name its choice for the 2008 vote.
The American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations, or AFL-CIO, the biggest federation of US unions, last month freed its 55 member unions to make their own recommendations in the presidential race.
Sen Chris Dodd of Connecticut, another Democratic hopeful, won the endorsement last week of the 280,000-member International Association of Fire Fighters.
REUTERS BJR KN0454


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