Specter’s camp announced today that the Philadelphia Building Trades, which represents 42 local unions with 77,000 members, is scheduled to endorse Arlen Specter for re-election.

An endorsement from labor, a key constituency in the Democratic party, is a huge coup for the former Republican and a potential blow to Rep. Joe Sestak, his primary challenger.

Specter has had a tenuous relationship with labor, going back and forth on the Employee Free Choice Act, which would help unions organize workers and help them win labor contracts. Specter said, when he was still a Republican, he planned to vote to block the bill, but that could have been largely because he was facing a tough primary challenge and the bill is incredibly unpopular among businesses that typically support Republicans.

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Tags: Arlen Specter, Joe Sestak

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