Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 10, 1992 TAG: 9203100317
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The first brawl of what has been until now a gentlemanly congressional campaign has erupted in union halls in the Roanoke Valley.
A rump coalition of a dozen or more Roanoke Valley transportation unions - mostly railroad workers - is defying the state AFL-CIO endorsement of John Edwards. Instead, they are openly backing John Fishwick Jr., the son of the former Norfolk and Western Railway Co. chairman and the self-proclaimed candidate of the working class.
Those familiar with the labor movement in the Roanoke Valley say they can't remember such an open split with the state's union leadership.
"In effect, they're crossing their own picket line," says Tommy Jordan, a former Machinists union leader now in management at the railroad.
"You could go to the Democratic mass meeting for the Roanoke mayor's race, which had almost nothing to do with labor, and see a `Solidarity' sign stretched across four cars, preaching, `We've got to stick together,' and they turn around, in the first major contested congressional race in 10 years, and go against an endorsed candidate. That is really shocking."
The labor revolt in favor of Fishwick - a 34-year-old Harvard-educated lawyer who has based his campaign on an appeal to working-class voters with tough talk about foreign trade and trickle-down economics - is significant to those outside the labor movement for at least three reasons:
It could influence who the Democrats nominate to succeed retiring Rep. Jim Olin - Edwards, Fishwick or Vinton insurance executive Steve Musselwhite, who has tried to carve out a separate niche by emphasizing his business background.
The split is especially noteworthy because, while unions often have played a key role in determining Democratic nominations, labor shows signs of flexing its political muscle in more potent ways in Roanoke Valley politics.
Workers turned out in unprecedented numbers at the Roanoke Democrats' Feb. 22 mass meeting to push through David Bowers' nomination for mayor - and labor leaders talked about turning out even more of their members for the mid-April mass meetings to select convention delegates.
Union leaders sticking with Edwards say they're not troubled by the labor split; they note the transportation unions backing Fishwick account for less than half the union workers in the Roanoke Valley.
Even so, the support of the transportation workers would appear to guarantee Fishwick a bigger share of the valley's convention delegates than he would otherwise have received. That's thanks to the rules changes Democrats adopted last week in which delegates are awarded proportionally to any delegate able to get 15 percent or more of the attendees at a mass meeting.
Finally, the labor split may define the political terrain on which much of the campaign is waged. Fishwick clearly has targeted unions with his message; now Edwards may have to fight to defend what he had considered his base. That could force both candidates to spend more time talking about labor issues than either had expected.
The root of the labor uprising for Fishwick is the manner in which the state AFL-CIO endorsed Edwards.
AFL-CIO spokesman Scott Reynolds points out that the state organization could have endorsed a candidate on its own authority. Instead, he notes it consulted local unions in the 6th Congressional District by setting up a screening committee composed of nine union leaders from its regional labor councils in Roanoke, Lynchburg and Staunton.
But some Roanoke union leaders contend the screening committee was stacked with Edwards supporters and didn't reflect the diversity of unions.
"It was ramrodded," says Dan Anderson, who heads the International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers System Council 6 in Vinton. "We were pretty well snubbed."
That feeling was further aroused because the intense and energetic Fishwick began relentlessly courting union locals - primarily the rail unions - while Edwards relied on his longtime ties to statewide labor leaders to secure the endorsement.
"John Fishwick personally contacted me in December," says Rick Howard, president of Machinists Local 165. "He came out and sought our support. Musselwhite, I wouldn't know him if he walked up in front of me. Edwards, he's a nice gentleman. But as I said, John Fishwick came out and asked for our support."
That personal contact counts for much with union members, who often feel ignored by Virginia politicians.
"I've had Mr. Edwards call me one time," says Joe Pugh, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees. "Mr. Musselwhite's campaign manager called me one time. Fishwick, he talked to me personally several times and he talked to us as a group."
Fishwick also wears his affinity for unions not on his sleeve but his lapel: He sports a gold pin, shaped like a railroad spike, given to him by Maintenance of Way Local 599.
When the state AFL-CIO ratified the screening committee's endorsement of Edwards, many railroad union leaders in Roanoke - excited by Fishwick's working-class message - were steaming.
Last week, a reported 200 union workers rallied at the Carpenters' Hall near the Hotel Roanoke to proclaim the formation of the Political Coalition of Transportation Workers in support of Fishwick.
Anderson says 13 or 14 unions claiming about 10,000 members district-wide - mostly rail unions but also some trucking unions - were represented. Some are affiliated with the state AFL-CIO; others aren't. "Normally, all would abide by [the AFL-CIO endorsement]," Anderson says. Now he predicts 75 percent of the transportation workers who participate in the mass meetings will back Fishwick.
It's difficult to measure just how deeply Fishwick has penetrated the labor movement. Some of the unions represented at the rally are barred by their bylaws from making endorsements. However, others have bucked the AFL-CIO and formally backed Fishwick.
"If I was running the John Edwards campaign, I would consider that a major blow," says Jordan. Edwards was on the road campaigning Monday and couldn't be reached for comment. But his campaign manager, Carol Lee Strickler, professed little surprise about the transportation unions: "I did not think we would get them because of Fishwick's background."
Harry Dull, the president of the AFL-CIO's Shenandoah Valley Central Labor Council and an Edwards backer, also dismissed the split. "I think we have been divided a little, but nothing to hurt us," he says.
Dull also suggested that Fishwick's decision to pursue the transportation unions - after the AFL-CIO had made its endorsement - would hurt him with the rest of organized labor, particularly if the May 9 convention goes several ballots and delegates are forced to pick a second choice.
"Earlier, I thought Fishwick was overall labor's second choice, but Mr. Musselwhite has done a good job," Dull says. "I'm not sure Fishwick would be our second choice now. I think a lot of people in labor resent somebody trying to divide us."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB