DENVER — Racial prejudice is being cited among senior union leaders to explain Sen. Barack Obama’s difficulty in winning over support from white rank-and-file members.

Obama (D-Ill.) is counting on organized labor to help win him key electoral votes in Ohio, Michigan and other battleground states.

“This race is very complicated because there is an African-American candidate for president,” said Ackerman. “We feel there is a racial component for some union members, but we’re confident we can overcome that.”

Some in the labor movement say that Obama’s race has made it difficult for a significant number of union members to support him over Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive GOP nominee.

Twenty percent of voters who supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in the primary now say they favor McCain, the expected Republican nominee, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Asked to comment, the Obama campaign responded in an email that economic issues will determine the presidential race. "Barack Obama is going to give95 percent of Americans a tax cut, while John McCain's plan would provide no tax relief for 100 middle class families while giving nearly $4 billion in tax breaks to big oil companies," a campaign spokesman said in an email. "Those are the issues that are going to decide this campaign."

Obama’s difficulties with white, working-class voters, who make up much of the ranks of organized labor, became apparent during the Democratic primary. Clinton beat Obama by large margins in states such as Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky, which have high concentrations of lower-income white voters.

“I think there’s more resistance than people want to admit,” said Edward Finkelstein, publisher of the Labor Tribune, a weekly publication distributed in about 80,000 union households in St. Louis and southern Illinois. “It’s ingrained that voting for a black is anathema to everything in their core.”

Finkelstein recounted a conversation he had with a female union member who has voted Democrat for years and stunned him by declaring that she would vote for McCain.

“I just can’t vote for that …” said the longtime Democrat, letting her words trail off.

Finkelstein said union members offer him different reasons for their reluctance to vote for a black president — even those who profess to having black friends.

“Everybody’s got a different reason,” said Finkelstein. “She’s afraid blacks are going to take over the country.”
Finkelstein, a member of the newspaper guild, said that fear is absurd.