Low-Profile Politics

The bobbing placards at Moscone Center last week proclaimed sentiments ranging from TALKS NOT TROOPS to BEDTIME FOR RONZO. But one cause whose signs usually dot Democratic gatherings seemed conspicuously absent: labor. Union backing was critical to Walter Mondale's success. But except for a march near the hall before the convention opened, labor leaders lay low in an effort to help Mondale shed his damaging image as a captive bearer of the union label. Said Mary Hatwood Futrell, president of the 1.7 million-member National Education Association: "We did not want to give the appearance of domination."

Despite the lack of buttons and banners, labor was in San Francisco in record force. In all, 800 of the convention's 3,933 delegate votes (and 580 of Mondale's 2,191) belonged to union members. Unions took a gamble by endorsing Mondale last fall, well before the presidential primaries. Now that the risk has paid off, unions will be flexing their muscle more visibly. Their challenge: to persuade the 43% of union members who voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980 to switch to Mondale.