There was an interesting article in The Hill today about some unions balking at John Edwards' record of support for labor unions.  More specifically, certain unions were critical of his failure to oppose right-to-work laws in his home state of North Carolina when he was campaigning for the US Senate. 

An Edwards' senior adviser, noting Edwards courting of labor on a national scale, explained that during his senatorial run, North Carolina had a small labor presence in a then "Jesse Helms" state.

Of course, Hillary Clinton continues tap dancing around her support of NAFTA and its extension, the Peru Trade Agreement, which are anathema to organized labor, but she still has union endorsements.

Barack Obama also supports the Peru Trade Pact but has fewer union endorsements.

Meanwhile, big dollar funds from corporate donors flow into Democratic candidates' coffers; unions can't compete with that.

None of the these three Democratic presidential candidates are 100% pro-union and pro-labor.  None of the three is a Paul Wellstone. None of the three can qualify as organized labor's dream candidate.  It's a perplexing situation for unions.

I've seen this many times before in local, state and federal campaigns in which  Democratic candidates are running for various offices. Often, even though the Dem candidate is a DINO, apathetic about unions, or subtly anti-union, because the race is "targeted" by the state Democratic Party and/or the DCCC, DSCC, and/or DNC, etc., the unions are pressured to support these candidates, frequently against the unions' best interest. 

Many times, it's money and effort down the toilet because the Republican lite, Dem candidate loses.  Even if the DINO candidate had won, chances are it would have been a disappointment for unions anyway. Unfortunately and ironically, it diverts union support from Democratic candidates who are pro-labor.

Some unions are very wise and only support Democratic candidates who are true blue pro-labor.  However, there aren't many of those around, especially in the South and parts of the Midwest.  Hard work needs to be done to change that picture.

Right now union endorsements are divided among the various Democratic presidential candidates or left up to the locals.  Unions want to back a Democratic winner; they don't want another Dick Gebhardt moment.  So they try to weigh the pros and cons of each candidate's labor union track record and hope that even a little something really is better than nothing.