Republicans See Opportunity in Labor Rift

Jesse Jackson Appeals for Unity as Democrats Worry About Election Consequences

By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 27, 2005; Page A02

CHICAGO, July 26 -- The political consequences of the split within the AFL-CIO began to reverberate nationwide Tuesday, with Democrats fretting that it will dilute the importance of labor endorsements while Republicans looked for opportunities to make inroads.

Civil rights leader and two-time Democratic presidential candidate Jesse L. Jackson pleaded with the warring forces to end their fight. "We must turn to each other, not on each other," Jackson told 800 delegates to the AFL-CIO convention here. He warned against leaving "so much blood on the field that you cannot compete" against "anti-civil-rights, anti-labor-rights Republicans."