With a thunderous standing ovation, delegates to the annual convention of the Minnesota AFL-CIO unanimously endorsed Senator Paul Wellstone for re-election in 2002.

“Senator Wellstone has always been for labor,” Mark Froemke, a union leader from East Grand Forks, said in moving the endorsement. “Senator Wellstone has always been for the working people of this country and the working people of this world.”

Wellstone, who also received labor endorsement in 1990 and 1996, expressed his gratitude for the early support.

“You've always been there for me . . . I thank you for all you have done for Minnesota and the country,” he told delegates. “You are part of a mighty justice tradition.”

“I am fiercely proud of my record as a United States senator,”he added. “And I am fiercely proud that I am a labor senator.”

The Minnesota AFL-CIO is a state federation of more than 800 local unions representing 400,000 workers. They include public employees, construction workers, industrial workers, service employees and others. The labor endorsement allows unions to back Wellstone financially and, more importantly, through the vast power of their memberships. Union members often staff phone banks, hand out literature and engage in other grassroots activities.

Wellstone and his wife, Sheila, embraced Minnesota AFL-CIO President Ray Waldron and shook hands with the state federation officers on the podium at the convention. The endorsement followed a speech in which Wellstone pledged to continuing pushing a pro-labor, pro-worker agenda.

Wellstone said he will use chairmanship of a Senate labor subcommittee to stop Republican initiatives that will undermine worker rights, weaken workplace safety laws and further limit the ability of unions to organize.

“This (GOP) crowd . . . wants to overturn over 70 years of our history,” he said. He pledged to “focus on a good education, good health care and a good job.

“The key to a good education, good health care and a good job is the right to be able to organize and bargain collectively so (people) can earn a decent living and can support their families.”

Wellstone said he has introduced Right-to-Organize legislation that will strengthen worker rights laws in the United States. “It's going to come to the floor of the United States Senate — maybe this fall,” he declared.