Postal workers union with 200,000 members endorses Sanders

Postal workers union with 200,000 members endorses Sanders

SeattlePI.com

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Bernie Sanders was endorsed Thursday by the 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union, an influential group that also backed the Vermont senator's presidential bid against Hillary Clinton during the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.

The union's support is key because it promises organizing muscle across the country. Sanders says that if turnout is high during Monday's lead-off Iowa caucus, he will win — and a win there will key victories in the next two states that vote, New Hampshire and Nevada.

“As with 2016, once again the Sanders campaign is boldly uplifting the goals and aspirations of workers," union president Mark Dimondstein said in a statement. “Simply put, we believe it is in the best interests of all postal workers, our job security and our union to support and elect Bernie Sanders for president.”

Polls in Iowa and other states show Sanders bunched near the top of the polls with former Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

Warren and Sanders have both long called for expanding the services offered by post offices, especially in rural communities, to include things like banking.

National labor unions wield a great deal of influence in the Democratic primary. Though many have yet to pick sides in the still-crowded 2020 Democratic primary, though the National Nurses United backed Sanders in November, after endorsing him in 2016. Biden's campaign got an earlier boost last year with the endorsement of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

Buttigieg once worked at the high-powered consulting firm McKinsey & Company and has previously released a client list that included the U.S. Postal Service. In 2010, the Postal Service hired McKinsey and other consulting firms and they...

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