Denver resolves another union issue

WE'VE MOVED! Democratic Convention Watch is now at http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com

Well no sooner do I note another potential labor roadblock for Denver's bid, then Dan Slater at DemNotes reports it seems to be resolved:

There has been some discussion recently about labor issues and the bid. I am proud to report that I received a call this afternoon informing me that the Colorado State AFL-CIO Executive Council today passed a resolution of support for the Denver 2008 bid. This is obviously very good news for our efforts, especially when combined with the news a few weeks ago that the Convention Center Hyatt workers had voted to organize.

There are some who think that a national convention should go only to cities with long-standing histories of having a strong organized labor community. If those thoughts succeed, though, it really narrows the list of cities that can host a national convention to a pretty short list. I’m of the opinion that we should use the Convention to help showcase organized labor’s strengths in communities that haven’t been as strong historically. That’s what Denver 2008 gives us the opportunity to do: to show Coloradans that our organized labor community is strong, able, and capable of great things. In other words, this is a chance to counter a lot of the anti-Labor rhetoric we hear all too often from the GOP side.

We saw again Tuesday how important Labor is to winning elections in Colorado — and we owe them gratitude. And we also thank Labor for its show of support today for our efforts to bring the Nation to Colorado in 2008!

Dan reiterates an important point that's been made in other places about convention sites: If the Democrats want to hold their conventions in non-typical (Blue state/union history) cities, like Denver, New Orleans, etc, the Democratic party and the labor movement are going to have to think in different ways about how these cities can still show the party's commitment to the labor movement.