Obama to Get Union EndorsementBy Steven Greenhouse
After suffering a setback in New Hampshire on Tuesday, Senate Barack Obama will get some good news at 11 a.m. today, eastern time, when Unite Here, the union representing 460,000 apparel, laundry, hotel and restaurant workers, announces that it is endorsing him, a union official said.
The union will make the announcement simultaneously at its New York headquarters and in Las Vegas, where its local, Culinary Local 226, representing more than 60,000 casino, hotel and restaurant workers, is by far the largest and most politically potent union in Nevada.
“This is a difficult decision,” Bruce Raynor, the union’s president, said. “There are three pro-labor leading candidates, and it’s extremely difficult to choose between them.”
With its announcement, Unite Here will become the first national union to back Mr. Obama. Its leaders hope to help put him over the top in the Nevada caucuses on Jan. 19 and give him new momentum.
Mr. Raynor said, “We have a very big union in Nevada that will do a very good job for whatever candidate we endorse, and we have a very politically active membership there.”
Unite Here has been in a dispute with Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign because its pollster and chief strategist, Mark Penn, heads a public relations firm that has represented the Cintas Corporation, a large industrial laundry company that has vigorously battled the union’s efforts to organize 17,000 Cintas workers.http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/obama-to-get-union-endorsement/PLEASE RECOMMEND SO PEOPLE KNOW THE REASON SHE DID NOT GET THE ENDORSEMENT
Also please investigate Cintas for us all, thanks!