To help shore up support, Vice President Joe Biden has reached out to his union supporters. Speaking before a packed house at the BCTD Legislative Conference, Biden touted the administration�s record on labor issues in the hopes of rallying support for Democrats facing reelection.

�This White House is waging a war to get you back to where you belong,� he said.

Union leaders are quick to recognize that, with construction unemployment still well above 20% nationwide, the top concern for members is jobs. Jim Williams, general president of the International Union of Painters & Allied Trades, says he is focused on getting his members to see a connection between the current leadership in Washington and opportunities to create more union jobs.

�We need to educate our members between now and November about what this administration has done for us and what it would mean to lose that,� he says.

And national labor leaders hope to capitalize on that sentiment. Ayers says that he expects the AFL-CIO to mobilize in the months leading up to the mid-term election with �a massive effort� to help keep its allies in office.