Two local union chapters endorsed Jon Kaiman for Congress this week, adding to the Democrat’s support from labor groups in the 3rd Congressional District.
Plumbers Local Union No. 200 backed Kaiman on Monday, with Business Manager Danny Grodotzke touting his record supporting labor interests and working families as North Hempstead’s town supervisor.
“Jon Kaiman is the best choice to succeed Rep. Steve Israel and has a record of steadfast leadership and putting people before politics,” Grodotzke said in a statement.
Local No. 200 is among the largest local trade unions on Long Island, representing plumbers in Nassau and Suffolk counties, Kaiman’s campaign said in a statement.
Communications Workers of America Local 1180, one of the unions representing striking Verizon employees, endorsed Kaiman last Wednesday after the Democrat spent weeks picketing with them.
“We support Jon Kaiman based on his record of fighting for workers and their families struggling to stay in the middle class,” Local 1180 President Arthur Cheliotes said in a statement.
Former North Hempstead Supervisor Kaiman, one of five Democrats vying to replace Rep. Steve Israel in the North Shore’s 3rd Congressional District, has joined Verizon workers on Long Island and New York City picket lines almost every day since their strike started April 13, Kaiman’s campaign said in a statement.
The strike began after the CWA and International Brotherhood of Electric Workers, the unions representing about 40,000 Verizon call center workers and technicians, reached an impasse after 10 months of contract negotiations with the telecommunications giant.
Kaiman also addressed picketing CWA workers during their 2011 strike before the union reached its most recent contract agreement with Verizon in 2012.
“Throughout my life, I have always stood with the hard working men and women of organized labor,” Kaiman said in a statement. “In Washington, I will continue to be a voice for working families.”
CWA Local 1180 is one of the union’s largest public sector chapters in the country, representing public, private and non-profit clerical and administrative workers mostly in New York City, Kaiman’s campaign said in a statement.
The endorsements follows Kaiman’s May 2 endorsement from Theatrical Teamsters Local 817, a union for theater workers in New York City and Long Island.
Kaiman is the only 3rd District Democrat to receive labor endorsements so far. His opponents include Jericho attorney Jonathan Clarke, North Hempstead Councilwoman Anna Kaplan, Suffolk County Legislator Steve Stern and former Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi.
They will face off in a June 28 primary for the Democratic nomination in the district stretching from Whitestone, Queens, to Kings Park in Suffolk County.
