Unions are refusing to chip in to pay for the Democratic National Convention in August, casting doubt on the party’s ability to replicate its extravagant 2008 convention.
Big labor is upset that the DNC chose swing state North Carolina to host the Obama nomination event because it is a right-to-work state, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Democrats are struggling to raise money for the party's national convention this summer in Charlotte, N.C., in part because they've barred corporations and lobbyists from contributing.
Now, one set of donors the party was banking on—organized labor—says it won't help pay for the event or will scale back contributions, partly because it is upset that the convention will be in a state considered unfriendly to unions. ...
"We are making no contribution this year," said Tom Snyder, a top official at Unite Here, which contributed $100,000 to the 2008 convention. "That's all I'm going to say about that," he said.
Obama won North Carolina by several thousand votes with a record turnout from college students and is hoping to recapture the same demographic in 2012.
But the region has also caused some major headaches for the administration. In 2009, Boeing Aircraft attempted to relocate a factory to South Carolina, another right-to-work state, in order to cut down on costs and avoid strikes that plagued its Washington plant. The administration attempted to block the move using the National Labor Relations Board. The board dropped the complaint in December 2011.
Unions picked up nearly 15 percent of the tab for the 2008 convention, contributing more than $8 million for Obama’s Greek-columned celebration at Mile High Stadium.