RBANDALE, Iowa - This is a farm state where the labor vote is critical. This is a big trading state where the protectionist pull is strong. This is a state of contradictions that is in a state of confusion.
In the past, the labor union movement lined up without qualms behind liberal Democrats, delivering the Iowa caucuses to former vice president Walter F. Mondale in 1984 and Representative Richard A. Gephardt in 1988. But now, as the 2000 caucuses draw nearer, union leaders are anxious. They desperately want to fall in love with a Democrat, but right now they are only in ''like.''
They like Vice President Al Gore well enough - well enough for two major unions in Iowa to line up with him - but worry about his commitment to free-trade agreements like NAFTA. They like former senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey well enough, but have doubts about his free-trade outlook, too. ''People,'' says Mark L. Smith, president of the Iowa Federation of Labor, ''are worried about both these guys.''
A labor-intensive campaign
Though the caucuses are six months away, both Democratic candidates are already working the union vote hard, especially here in Iowa. AFL-CIO strategists believe union members account for about 153,000 voters in this state. Labor households in Iowa increased their support for Democratic congressional candidates last year and were a prominent factor in winning the gubernatorial nomination for Democrat Tom Vilsack, who in November recaptured the governor's mansion after 30 years of Republican rule.
As the national labor federation girds for a debate over whether to issue an early endorsement in the Democratic nomination fight, the uneasiness remains. ''I'm really apprehensive,'' says Chuck Gifford, former political director of the United Auto Workers union in Iowa. ''I'm not comfortable with what either one of them is saying on trade and the international economy. The words seem right, but there's no substance.''
Gore dodged a bullet last month when the Senate killed legislation, strongly supported by the unions, that would have drastically cut steel imports. President Clinton had vowed to veto the measure, which passed the House by a 2-to-1 margin. Gore, who does not support import quotas, would have been in the awkward position of defending the administration's opposition to a prominent policy initiative of a prominent constituency.
Though Bradley has spent more time campaigning among union voters this year, Gore has been cultivating labor leaders since he became vice president. Each year he travels to the AFL-CIO executive council meetings with a goodie in his back pocket, promising a presidential veto on Republican efforts to repeal the Davis-Bacon law, or a veto of the GOP effort to overhaul worker-safety laws, or an executive order banning striker replacements.
Wariness over Gore
The vice president won the endorsement in June of the public employees' union and the auto workers. But many union leaders remain wary of Gore, despite his recent support for measures to make it harder for businesses with poor labor records to win federal contracts. Leading union political strategists also are skeptical of Gore's campaign staff, believing they are people suited to be White House counsel or chief of staff - but lack the streetwise and the hungry who fight to win the White House in the first place.
Bradley has been meeting regularly with the service-employees union, an important force in New Hampshire, but there remains no surge of support for him. One union, the seafarers, actually has a warm relationship with Texas Governor George W. Bush, the GOP front-runner.
Gephardt, still regarded as a labor union hero in Iowa because of his strong opposition to NAFTA, flew here in the spring to smooth labor's ruffled feathers, only to find real restiveness among union leaders. He met with four dozen leaders and organizers in Des Moines to deliver a soothing message but found himself on the receiving end of a blistering message. ''With all due respect, congressman, you're my friend and you operate in a world where you can talk to these Al Gores,'' the auto workers' Gifford told him. ''I like to see him coming of age with respect to his trade policy, but I don't think he's said that loud enough.''
In announcing his candidacy in a speech in Carthage, Tenn., Gore spoke of insisting that fair labor and strong environmental language be included in future trade agreements. Union officials here want to hear more.
''You've got a lot of bitter people who are going to fight [these] phony trade deals until their last breath,'' says James Wengert, retired president of the Iowa Federation of Labor.
Right now labor unions, among the Democrats' most loyal constituencies, are uneasy about the party's choices in the winter of 2000. That, more than anything, is why union leaders are uneasy about the Democrats' chances in November 2000.
