WASHINGTON -- The decision of the California Nurses Association to endorse Ralph Nader casts a new light on the presidential race. The 31,000-member union is politically active in a state that Vice President Al Gore cannot afford to lose. The association's decision could set a precedent that other unions might follow.
Resentment still lingers throughout the labor movement over Gore's decision last month to support the China trade bill.
After all, Gore was willing to break with the president over the Elián González case. But he remained a loyal and disciplined soldier for the China vote.
The difference was clear: Big Business was calling the shots this time. And the message was not lost on those who were wondering what labor could expect from a Gore administration.
Press reports after the vote indicated that labor's concerns about the China trade bill were quite valid.
Our enormous trade deficit with China will increase, as will the downward pressure on the wages of American workers. And manufacturing workers will continue to lose jobs.
Gore, and the 73 House Democrats who voted for the bill, went along with the ruse because they assume that labor has nowhere else to go. However many times they get kicked in the face, they reason, unions will stick to the Democrats because they have only the Republicans for an alternative.
Or will they? United Auto Workers' President Steve Yokich declared that it is ``time to forget about party labels and instead focus on supporting candidates, such as Ralph Nader, who will take a stand based on what is right.''
His was not the only angry voice heard from labor after the vote. Steelworkers' President George Becker called it ``a blatant betrayal of American workers, their families and communities by elected politicians in both parties,'' one that the Steelworkers ``would never forget.'' Teamsters' President James P. Hoffa made a similar statement. Neither the UAW nor the Teamsters has yet endorsed a presidential candidate.
Nader may be a much more serious candidate than the experts give him credit for. Unlike his last campaign, which really never happened, this one is expected to raise millions of dollars and get him on the ballot in 45 states.
Nader can't draw on $60 million of his own money, as the billionaire Ross Perot spent in `92. But he already is known and respected by millions of voters, some of whom remember his battles with General Motors over auto safety as he put the American consumer movement on the map.
Uncorrupted by corporate contributions, Nader is campaigning on issues that really matter: national health insurance, clean elections and stopping the erosion of labor and environmental standards that is worsened by globalization.
Popular discontent with both Republicans and Democrats remains high. People see both parties as mainly bought by big money. The China vote -- which was clearly framed as a contest between noncommercial values such as human rights and economic fairness versus the ruthless pursuit of business interests -- did everything to reinforce that impression.
The election is still too far away to make any predictions. Another possibility is that many working-class Democrats will stay home, as they did after President Clinton pushed NAFTA through Congress by similar means. That response was widely seen as contributing to the Republican takeover of the House in 1994.
But if the China vote continues to bring union endorsements to Nader, and helps push him over the crucial media threshold, we could be headed for the most interesting election year in decades.
©2000 Knight Ridder
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