NY Labor Unions Switch Over to Support GOP in House Races

By:  Ilana Siyance

New York Republicans seem have managed to gain support from labor unions in key swing districts for the upcoming House races.  Big labor traditionally backs Democrats, but this time a few major unions are breaking out of the mold to support the re-election of two first-term Republican representatives in the Hudson Valley: Mike Lawler in the 17th District and Marc Molinaro in the 18th district.

As reported by the NY Post, the candidates named are in for a tight race, and the labor support may mean the difference of the GOP keeping control of the House.  Although the New York State AFL-CIO leadership is still backing Democratic candidates in all seven of the most competitive local House races,

John Samuelsen, president of the National Transport Workers Union, is backing Lawler and Molinaro in the embattled Hudson Valley races. Samuelsen, who serves on the AFL-CIO Leadership Council, said he supports candidates from either party, based on how responsive they are to his members’ needs.  The union represents some 155,000 members, including workers in the airline & transit sectors, bus and train operators, ramp agents, mechanics, car cleaners, and baggage handlers.

Samuelsen said both Lawler and Molinaro have proven their alliance with his members.  “Democrats have to earn an endorsement. They don’t have an entitlement to a TWU endorsement,” Samuelsen said Sunday.

Per the Post, Lawler won 37 labor endorsements — 15 from law enforcement and 22 from construction, trade and firefighter unions.  He has also garnered backing from unions representing plumbers, carpenters, steamfitters, electrical workers and operating engineers and the building and construction trades council.  A lot of those same unions are also backing Molinaro.  “I think what you’re seeing within the rank and file of these unions is that the membership has moved to the right,” Lawler told The Post on Sunday.  “Certainly I think Republicans should be the party of working families and should be fighting for good paying jobs.”

This doesn’t mean it will be an easy race to win.  Per the Post, Lawler is up against ex-Democratic Congressman Mondaire Jones, who has the support of over a dozen unions — including the powerful teachers unions and health-care unions including 1199 SEIU and the NYS Nurses Association, as well as the AFL-CIO.  Samuelsen’s trade union seems to have had a falling out with Jones, whom he accused of being a “no-show” on their issues, as per two videos circulated to members.  “Mondaire Jones is an entitled, spoiled, nervy bastard,” Samuelsen has said.   The Jones campaign replied lauding Jones’s commitment to unions in the transportation sector.  “It’s unfortunate that John Samuelsen is engaging in petty insults because he can’t identify a policy-based reason not to support the only pro-labor candidate in this race,” said the Jones rep.

The most recent poll by Emerson College, released last week, showed a neck and neck race, with Lawler winning a likely 45% of votes, while Jones has 44%.

For his part, Molinaro, a former Dutchess County executive, has garnered 35 labor endorsements from building trades and law enforcement, including the national border patrol council as the border-migrant crisis has become an all-important issue.  Molinaro is in a close rematch against Democrat Josh Riley.  Molinaro says he’s worked in congress for the past two years to pull in union support. “I’ve built a relationship with the men and women of the trades over the course of the last 15 years,”  he said.