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Gingrich, Hagel Meet With Union Officials
Organized labor has long been a political ally of the Democratic Party, but that didn’t stop two potential candidates for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination from meeting with one of the more influential unions Monday.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia and Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska met privately in Washington with the executive committee of the Service Employees International Union, a 1.8 million member union that endorsed Democrat Howard Dean during the 2004 presidential contest.
The SEIU’s executive committee has already met with the Democratic candidates seeking the party’s 2008 nomination and has invited the Republican candidates to meet with them as well. But so far, none of the declared GOP candidates has accepted the union’s invitation.
“We hope that today’s conversations were the first of many that we will be having with Republican presidential candidates before the election,” said Roger Roeder, an SEIU member from Iowa who is also a member of the union’s Republican Advisory Committee. “Working people need to know where all of the pesidential candidates stand on health care, jobs and retirement with dignity,” said Roeder, who participated in the meeting.
SEIU includes 300,000 Repubicans nationwide, according to the union. SEIU is the fastest growing union in the United States and is concentrated within the health care, food and hospitality industries. It claims to represent the most immigrants of any union and is heavily involved in promoting immigration reform.
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