Excerpt
GWEN IFILL (Newshour): As local governments roll back employee pensions and benefits, the nation's largest public labor union prepares for an internal battle that could shape its external mission.
VICE PRESIDENT JOSEPH BIDEN: You provide the hospitals. You provide the roads. You provide the ability of people to live a decent middle -class life. We owe you.
GWEN IFILL: Speaking before one of the Democratic Party's most important constituencies, Vice President Joe Biden issued a rallying cry yesterday to the nation's largest public sector union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFSCME.
Union members welcome those fighting words as public sector unions engage in a series of battles around the country over jobs, benefits and bargaining rights. Only a few weeks ago in Wisconsin, where AFSCME was born in 1932, Republican Governor Scott Walker survived a union-driven recall attempt. The bitter vote came after Walker signed a bill to end collective bargaining rights for most public sector unions.
On the same day, in California, the labor movement also lost two smaller skirmishes, as voters in San Diego and San Jose decided to cut city workers' pensions. It was a setback from only last fall in Ohio, where public unions beat back an attempt to scale back collective bargaining rights.
These very public debates have now led to a vigorous internal one as well, as AFSCME tomorrow elects a new president for the first time in a generation. The race pits Lee Saunders, the current secretary treasurer, against Danny Donohue, head of AFSCME's New York state branch.
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