AFL-CIO Backs Democrats in Montana

June 30, 2016 
By Steven Wishnia and Neal Tepel

Helena, Mont – Speaking at the Montana AFL-CIO’s convention here June 24, national AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka pledged that the federation would support Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock’s campaign for re-election and Denise Juneau, who is trying to win the state’s one House seat from Republican Ryan Zinke.

He said the AFL-CIO will lead the union movement’s most “comprehensive and sophisticated” effort ever to elect pro-union candidates nationwide, and prevent Montana from enacting a law banning the union shop. A spokesperson for Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte, who abruptly cancelled his interview with the state AFL-CIO before it endorsed Bullock, said enacting a so-called “right to work” law “will not be a priority in his administration.” Montana, whose union history goes back to an 1878 miners’ strike, has the second-highest union density among the 14 states in the Rocky Mountain and Great Plains regions, and is one of only three that allows the union shop. Read more