Why have union officials generally not sought elected office in the USA?

[AtorBoltox]

Coming from Australia, where most of the Labor party ministry comes from a union background, I wonder why it seems no union official has ever been a prominent elected representative for the Democrats? (at least to my knowledge, if I'm wrong please correct me) I know that unions are far weaker in the USA than Australia, but I would have thought at least in the period of the New Deal Consensus some leaders would have sought positions

[PSOL]

The Democratic party is not a labor party, so they would have no “secure” way of moving up the hierarchy. They also would not get funding, as most business leaders in the United States don’t like union members having a presence period and they would always be overspent in both primaries and in the GE—explicitly and implicitly with tacit support from for-profit businesses who control most of the media.

There are union members who rise to high places at times on the local level sure, but the income differentials between all of Congress and the median voter is more proof of how unique the United States is among anglophone nations in not having a labor party.

[dead0man]

Has there ever been a famous union official in the US who wasn't an obvious crook?  (not that being an obvious crook stops someone from being elected, as proof see nearly every big city mayor in the US or Donald Trump)

[sting in the rafters]

1. They realized what Rove did but over half a decade earlier; it's better to be kingmaker than king.
2. It's true a lot of the leadership was wise, not all maybe not even most but enough had ties for control. But the members expected that if s____ hit the fan, it was their leaders' job that well... when the fussin' starts the bussin' starts. So yeah, not exactly good publicity.

[PSOL]

Has there ever been a famous union official in the US who wasn't an obvious crook?  (not that being an obvious crook stops someone from being elected, as proof see nearly every big city mayor in the US or Donald Trump)

This is historically a meme, the notion that union officials were overly corrupt or had extensive mob ties from like 3-4 unions in the 1970s is false, especially so given the corruption swept under the rug by bosses and FBI hyperfocus on union officials on behalf of said bosses.

[GoTfan]

Has there ever been a famous union official in the US who wasn't an obvious crook?  (not that being an obvious crook stops someone from being elected, as proof see nearly every big city mayor in the US or Donald Trump)

Walter Reuther? I seem to recall reading that RFK wanted him on the ticket in 1960.

[Agonized-Statism]

Lots of reasons, but the biggest one I would think is that they would scare off business interests and big donors. They're also highly localized and unlikely to do much for a ticket outside of big Northern industrial cities- the American proletariat is infamously divisible, with one of the big divides being industrial vs. agricultural and mining workers as 1896 demonstrated.

[Senator Incitatus]

Has there ever been a famous union official in the US who wasn't an obvious crook?  (not that being an obvious crook stops someone from being elected, as proof see nearly every big city mayor in the US or Donald Trump)

This is historically a meme, the notion that union officials were overly corrupt or had extensive mob ties from like 3-4 unions in the 1970s is false, especially so given the corruption swept under the rug by bosses and FBI hyperfocus on union officials on behalf of said bosses.

Whether or not this perception is accurate, it started much earlier. The modern idea of direct ties between organized crime and labor probably stems from the Goldwater-Kennedy hearings of the Labor & Public Welfare Committee c. 1958, though I'm sure the idea has much earlier hints in the labor-management violence of the 19th century.

Has there ever been a famous union official in the US who wasn't an obvious crook?  (not that being an obvious crook stops someone from being elected, as proof see nearly every big city mayor in the US or Donald Trump)

Walter Reuther? I seem to recall reading that RFK wanted him on the ticket in 1960.

If that's true, the idea probably stemmed from those hearings, in which Goldwater attempted to implicate Reuther in criminal activity but was fairly deftly handled by the witness.

[dead0man]

Has there ever been a famous union official in the US who wasn't an obvious crook?  (not that being an obvious crook stops someone from being elected, as proof see nearly every big city mayor in the US or Donald Trump)

Walter Reuther? I seem to recall reading that RFK wanted him on the ticket in 1960.

that's fair, he seems like he was a good dude.  Are there any others or is this one of those "the exception proves the rule" kind of things?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Has there ever been a famous union official in the US who wasn't an obvious crook?  (not that being an obvious crook stops someone from being elected, as proof see nearly every big city mayor in the US or Donald Trump)

Walter Reuther? I seem to recall reading that RFK wanted him on the ticket in 1960.

that's fair, he seems like he was a good dude.  Are there any others or is this one of those "the exception proves the rule" kind of things?

George Meany, A. Philip Randolph, Rose Schneiderman, Clara Lemlich, several others early on in female-dominated industries. Not all great people necessarily, but all opponents of graft within the labor movement.

Probably the most prominent union official to go into public office in the US is Arthur Goldberg, who was CIO general counsel and then Secretary of Labor, a Supreme Court Justice, and UN Ambassador under Kennedy and Johnson. Like Reuther, he was at one point considered for a VP nomination (in Johnson's kiboshed bid for a second full term).

[Oppo]

There's one notable exception — former President of the Screen Actors Guild Ronald Reagan

[Badger]

Has there ever been a famous union official in the US who wasn't an obvious crook?