WASHINGTON -- Saying Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader would bring nation "closer to real labor law reform," a union representing 35,000 electrical workers and manufacturing employees endorsed the longtime consumer advocate Wednesday.

"Decades of corporate-controlled Democratic and Republican presidencies convince us we have no choice but to escape the two-party trap," read the endorsement approved by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers Union.

Nader has secured the support of three unions, but is unlikely to receive the Teamsters endorsement when it is announced in September.

Vice President Al Gore secured the support of the AFL-CIO late last year, but Nader has scrapped with the Democratic presidential candidate throughout the year for labor support.

"The politicians must be told they have to join the fight of working people or we're going to break their hearts like they broke ours," said Bill Austin, a leader of the electrical union from Iowa.

The endorsement came during the 65-year-old independent union's annual convention in Pennsylvania.

Nader has polled about 5 percent in recent national polls, with slightly stronger support in Democratic strongholds like California.