AFL-CIO endorses Barack Obama
As Sen. John McCain came under fire in front of influential Latinos (see yesterday's post here from Nicole Gaouette in Washington), Barack Obama consolidated his organized labor support Thursday with an AFL-CIO endorsement that puts much of Hillary Rodham Clinton's union muscle behind his bid for the White House, writes the L.A. Times' Michael Finnegan.
Obama's newly enlarged labor coalition could help the presumptive Democratic nominee appeal to some union constituencies that favored Clinton, including blue-collar whites in the Rust Belt and Latinos in the Southwest. Large numbers of Latinos are members of such key organized labor constituencies as the Service Employees International Union, which represents healthcare, home care and nursing home workers, public service employees, janitors and others.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
Photo: Francine Orr/For the Los Angeles Times
