Election reveals gap between federal union members, leaders

As the leaders of federal employee unions lamented George Bush's reelection, many members celebrated, illuminating a disconnect between leadership and those they represent.

All major federal employee unions, including the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union, endorsed Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., for president. But according to exit polls, almost four out of 10 union members voted for Bush. In the wake of last week's election, union leaders are asking themselves how they can bridge the electoral gap, and how to respond to members who say they voted for Bush because they support him not only on cultural issues, but also on workforce issues.

"We just don't understand what our members were thinking when they voted for George Bush," said Frank Carelli, director of government employees for the AFL-CIO's International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

"Their jobs are being outsourced, wages are lower, health care costs are higher than ever, there's no certainty for their jobs whatsoever. It seemed like all those issues didn't matter, and they just went on social and cultural issues," he added.

Members themselves noted the importance of nonwork issues. "I supported President Bush, but the 'federal workforce' policies were a relatively minor part of that decision," said Jerome Borden, a longtime federal employee in Utah. "Taxes, tort reform, judicial nominations, and Second Amendment considerations were larger," he added.

In direct contrast to the official union viewpoint, which generally is opposed to most competitive sourcing initiatives, some federal workers said they support Bush and his emphasis on job competitions because they believe it makes the government more efficient.

"When I read comments from the national government employee reps, I am appalled that these people do not want our government to be as efficient as possible-it's all of our tax dollars we're spending," said Bradley E. Crawford, procurement analyst for the Navy and a former member of AFGE. He left the union, he said, after it failed to help him deal with a difficult supervisor.

For their part, union leaders say that when choosing a candidate to endorse, they focus exclusively on the effect of workforce issues on members. "At least in the 30 years I've been in organized labor, we never spoke out about cultural issues, gay marriage, et cetera. We stick to the job-driven issues, like pensions, wages, health care," said Carelli.

Matthew Biggs, legislative director for the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, said the union didn't receive any negative feedback for its Kerry endorsement from the 40,000 federal employees it represents. "We haven't had anyone leave the union because of that, and we're very good about educating our members as to why we endorse particular candidates," he said.

Both IFPTE and IAM decide who to endorse based on the opinions of representatives, but do not poll all members prior to making an endorsement.

Union leaders admitted that difficulty in rounding up greater support for endorsed candidates likely would persist. "40 percent of our members are registered Republicans. There's no getting around that," said Carelli. Still, he wondered if he could have done more to change last week's outcome.

"Maybe," he said, "we didn't spend enough time talking about competitive sourcing."