Labor leaders back Obama, but will members?

By Andrew Stern

CHICAGO (Reuters) - American labor leaders are urging their white working class members to put aside racial biases that could undermine Barack Obama's union-backed bid to become the United States' first black president.

Recent elections have shown Democrats with a populist message could rely on strong support from union households.

But Obama's late-season primary losses to Hillary Clinton in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana revealed a chink in his support among the white working class -- some believing rumors that he is a Muslim or betrays a lack of patriotism.

The primary defeats also may have exposed a vein of racism that could figure in the November contest against Republican John McCain who, like Clinton, is white.

Of the 10 million members of the AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. labor federation, one quarter are said to be undecided about Obama. The union is going all-out to bring them into the fold.

"There's not a single good reason for any worker -- especially any union member -- to vote against Barack Obama," labor leader Richard Trumka told a Steel Workers convention in Las Vegas last month.

"There's only one really bad reason to vote against him: because he's not white," he said.

In spite of the protracted decline in union density to the point where labor unions represent only one in eight U.S. workers, high turnout rates among union members and their families gives them disproportionate weight in elections.