Governor Deval Patrick has won the support of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, a powerful local labor union in his battle for Massachusetts casinos. He recently went underfire for including casino profits and monies in the budget, set to end in 2009. Perhaps the recent support will mollify some of the opposition.

The Massachusetts AFL-CIO, formally known as Massachusetts Federation of Labor and the Massachusetts Labor Council, is an umbrella organization for labor unions and intermediate bodies for the state of Massachusetts. As the organization represents more than 400,000 workers, their strnegth of presense is a much needed backing for Govenor Patrick’s destination resort casino economic development proposal. The hope is that the support of the AFL-CIO might be enough to get legislators on board.

The organization’s promised to be quite active in the campaign; “The labor movement intends to wage an unprecedented campaign on behalf of Gov. Deval Patrick’s casino gambling plan,” their website posted Thursday.
 
Robert Haynes, president to the union was quoted as realizing the potency of their backing: “Most people in this commonwealth are aware of the fact that we are a very politically able organization.”

The union got involved in the debate reportedly because of the potential impact casino gambling could have on the state as a whole. Patrick’s plan includes that anywhere from 20,000 to 30,000 jobs permanent jobs would be created to support the casino expansion. These numbers do not include the seasonal work that would be needed to build the casinos initially.

This increase in potential jobs in the industry pushed the union to give their support. "We have over the years been rather successful in electing candidates to office...that share our values and principles, ...we are going to use our political strength and our political programs in the legislative process now," said Haynes.

They’ve issued a statement that the next few months will put Patrick’s proposal at the top of the AFL-CIO’s priority list.