After being courted intensely by the top Democratic presidential candidates, the Service Employees International Union decided yesterday not to endorse anyone. Officials with the union, which represents nearly 1.9 million workers, said that John Edwards had lobbied hardest for its endorsement, but that Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama had pushed to stalemate Mr. Edwards by urging the executive board not to endorse him. At a meeting in Chicago, the board also gave the go-ahead to locals to endorse a candidate, an unusual move. With leaders of the union in California leaning toward Mr. Edwards and those in Illinois tilting toward Mr. Obama, the junior senator from the state, that could mean that the California locals will endorse Mr. Edwards and the Illinois locals Mr. Obama.
See "Large Union Declines to Endorse a Candidate", Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times, October 8, 2007