The union representing more than a third of the city's municipal work force endorsed Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg for re-election yesterday, giving the mayor, a Republican, crucial labor backing and signaling labor's disenchantment with the field of Democratic candidates.
The union, District Council 37, represents 121,000 city workers, mostly in nonuniformed jobs, and includes social workers, secretaries, architects, engineers, accountants and employees in scores of other positions. The union typically backs Democrats, but broke with that tradition by endorsing Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani for re-election in 1997, when he faced a relatively weak Democratic opponent, Ruth Messinger, then Manhattan borough president. This is the first time the union has made a general election endorsement before the primary, union officials said.
The district council's endorsement could provide cover for other unions to back Mr. Bloomberg. He has been vigorously courting labor groups as he tries to broaden his base of support, although several important unions, most notably those of teachers and the police, have been outspoken in criticizing him over problems in reaching new contracts.
District Council 37's executive board voted 14 to 12 yesterday to make the endorsement, with many opponents of an endorsement arguing that it was wrong to back the mayor before the Democrats had even chosen a candidate. Despite the narrow endorsement, officials with the district council - an umbrella group of 56 union locals - said they would throw all of the council's central political resources behind Mr. Bloomberg. With Mr. Bloomberg beaming beside her yesterday, Lillian Roberts, the union's executive director, said it would help him win "by any means necessary."
Several union officials said the endorsement was pragmatic in recognition that Mr. Bloomberg would most likely win in November.
Many of the union's members are black or Hispanic, and many are in the lower middle class, representing demographic groups that Mr. Bloomberg's aides said were pivotal to his re-election. The endorsement, Mr. Bloomberg's aides said, could go far toward dispelling opponents' depictions of Mr. Bloomberg as an out-of-touch billionaire catering to rich white people in Manhattan.
The endorsement was a particular blow to the campaign of Fernando Ferrer, who had the union's support in his 2001 runoff against Mark Green. The union had first backed Peter F. Vallone in the primary, and after the runoff it supported Mr. Green in the general election. At least earlier this campaign season, Mr. Ferrer had been hoping for the union's support again this year.
Over the last several weeks it had become increasingly clear that much of the union leadership was tilting toward Mr. Bloomberg, leading Mr. Ferrer to spend extra time during a recent scheduled visit to the D.C. 37 headquarters to make the rounds of local presidents.
Late on Tuesday, Mr. Ferrer made a last-ditch round of telephone calls to union officials, a push that, ultimately, came too late.
Still, the close executive board vote indicated that Mr. Bloomberg would not necessarily have the district council's full support this fall, and that several of its locals could peel off to support Mr. Ferrer or others.
One executive board member, Donald Afflick - whose local represents clerical employees with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority - said that he supported Mr. Ferrer and that his unit could back him as well. But, he added, "Freddy sort of shot himself in the foot," by remarking earlier this year that the shooting of Amadou Diallo, the African immigrant killed by the police, was not a crime.
Mr. Ferrer's campaign aides said yesterday that rank-and-file union members would not follow their executive board and that they were not happy with their last contract, which gave them a 5 percent raise over three years. But the union recently announced that the Bloomberg administration had decided to give its members an additional 1 percent raise in response to what it said were productivity measures.
"We think Freddy Ferrer will have their support election night," said Jennifer Bluestein, Mr. Ferrer's communications director, of the union membership.
Even if several locals get behind Mr. Ferrer, or another Democratic candidate, the resources of the central union will remain committed to Mr. Bloomberg. "The resources of the union get committed to who the union endorses," said William T. Cunningham, a senior political aide to Mr. Bloomberg. "We've just taken a huge resource off the table from the Democrats."
The mayor made several recent moves that were sure to appeal to the union membership. Just last week, the union's newspaper ran a front-page story highlighting the extra 1 percent raise. And in June, the paper announced that the city had tentatively agreed to set aside a percentage of newly created lower-cost housing for city workers.
Patrick Bahnken, president of the union local representing 2,600 emergency medical workers, praised Mr. Bloomberg for being attentive to his union's concerns. He said Mr. Bloomberg had reversed Mr. Giuliani's efforts to privatize much of the emergency medical service system.
"This mayor has done a lot of good for us," said Mr. Bahnken, who introduced yesterday's executive board resolution to endorse Mr. Bloomberg. "A lot of people felt that we should wait until after the primaries and we shouldn't move so early. I'm of the opinion that if you wait until it's all over, then it's all over."
Several Democrats yesterday were quick to question just how powerful a political force the union was after a series of scandals and fractious infighting over the last decade. But Mr. Cunningham said the district council's political operations remained formidable. "They know how to reach their own people to mobilize them to vote," he said.
Its symbolic importance was undeniable, and Mr. Bloomberg's aides portrayed the endorsement as the most powerful example yet that he is making crucial inroads with traditionally Democratic constituencies.
Mr. Bloomberg is running as a Republican in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans five to one. His campaign aides have made it a priority to co-opt or at least neutralize the usual pillars of Democratic support, most notably labor unions.
Mr. Bloomberg has been racking up smaller union endorsements through the spring and early summer, but the endorsement yesterday was certainly the largest. Another large union, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, which represents 60,000 doormen, janitors and other workers, is expected to endorse him in the next few weeks, several union officials said.