WASHINGTON — As head of the political arm of the American Federation of Teachers, Rachelle Horowitz is one of the capital's most politically influential labor officials. But in a Washington career that stretches back through the presidencies of George Bush, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, she had never set foot in the secretary of labor's office until earlier this year.
"It's a pretty nice place," she said. "We'd never been in there before."
Small things like that make a difference in politics. Despite a potentially bitter division over the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada, President Clinton and organized labor have so far avoided the outright alienation that dogged Carter, the last Democratic President, during his four years in the White House.
In fact, when Clinton appears Monday before the AFL-CIO convention in San Francisco, White House aides expect a warm welcome. And for Clinton, that welcome still matters.
Organized labor may not wield the clout it once did in presidential politics, but it remains the difference between winning and losing for scores of Democratic members of the House and Senate. As a result, Clinton knows, labor support is indispensable to rounding up votes in Congress for everything from his budget package to health and welfare reform.
Moreover, mindful of how Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's (D-Mass.) labor-backed challenge made Carter a one-term President, Clinton has been careful to avoid alienating the one organized group in the Democratic coalition that remains large and politically sophisticated enough to provide a base for an internal revolt.
In courting labor, Clinton began with a somewhat shaky base. Most labor leaders initially supported other candidates in last year's Democratic primary campaigns, concerned that Clinton--then the governor of a Southern state with relatively little union presence--would be too conservative.
Clinton's labor base lay initially with the large white-collar unions, primarily those representing teachers and government workers. Union leaders such as Gerald W. McEntee of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and Albert Shanker of the AFT continue to be among his strongest backers on the AFL-CIO's executive council.
