Labour and business face off at Democratic convention

By Kevin Drawbaugh

DENVER (Reuters) - Unions and big business resumed hostilities this week at the Democratic convention over legislation to make organizing workers easier, sharpening the divide between U.S. Labour and management.

Organized Labour is putting the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would change the rules on the formation of unions, at the centre of its election-year campaign effort, while corporate lobbyists are vowing to block it.

The struggle over the bill, expected to be introduced in Congress early next year, underscores the close alliance of Labour with Democrats, and business with Republicans.

"Workers understand what's happened to them over the past eight years ... They understand that we have to elect Democrats," John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO Labour federation, said in an interview after speaking at the convention.

Unions are pouring volunteers and big money into backing Barack Obama, attacking John McCain and supporting Democrats in selected U.S. Senate races where Republicans look vulnerable.

Lobbyists for Labour and corporate America are swarming the conventions this week and next, seeking access to delegates, lawmakers and other movers and shakers who could shape policy in the administration that will take office in January.

Standing in the hall outside the union suites at Denver's Pepsi centre where labour's convention presence is prominent, Sweeney said, "It's important that workers recognize that they need political power to achieve changes.

"We couldn't get the Employee Free Choice Act if we had a continuation of the Republican administration ... Workers are understanding more and more that McCain would just be a continuation of the Bush administration."