President Bush, for example, announced Monday that he is creating a high-level government post to nurture the manufacturing sector.

But Kenneth Riley, president of the Charleston dockworkers' union, has other plans.

"For everyone in the union family," Riley said, "allowing George W. Bush to keep his seat is not an option."

Riley's been working overtime to get his union brothers registered for the 2004 elections.

"We want to make sure everyone in their families is registered too," Riley said during an appearance by Democratic presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. John Edwards last week at the International Longshoremen Association's union hall.

Organized labor has rarely been pursued as a voting bloc in Republican-leaning South Carolina which, as a right-to-work state doesn't make union membership mandatory in organized shops. But now that South Carolina is holding a Democratic presidential primary on Feb. 3, labor leaders hope the candidates will craft specific messages to blue-collar men and women.

Edwards, from North Carolina, made his pitch during town meetings. He blamed Bush's trade policies for the loss of 3 million U.S. jobs and for South Carolina's 7 percent unemployment rate, which hit a nine-year high last month. Bush, Edwards said, has declared "war on organized labor."

Clemson University labor economist John Warner said there were clues throughout Edwards' speech that union members would especially pick up on.

"When John Edwards was saying he wants to have a trigger clause that restricts textile imports, that's going to be something that appeals to any person working in the textile industry, including unionized workers there," Warner said.

The number of South Carolina workers in labor unions is difficult to determine, but officials estimate it runs as high as 3.5 percent or more of the state's total workforce. That's about 70,000 people, but it includes a wide range of professions, from assembly-line workers to teamsters, letter carriers and transit workers.

Most of the candidates who have visited Charleston on the campaign trail have supported union causes and said so during stump stops at the ILA, which has about 1,500 members in Charleston. In addition to Edwards, other ILA visitors have included former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, and the Rev. Al Sharpton. Gephardt has so far been the biggest union favorite from his career in Congress.

For the upcoming races, the political agenda of unionized workers isn't that much different from what non-unionized workers want, said Erin McKee, president of the Greater Charleston Central Labor Council, an umbrella group for local union membership.

Her choice for president? "Somebody that is going to be concerned about working families," she said, adding that she is encouraging unionized workers to go see all the candidates when they come to town. McKee estimates local union membership at more than 3,000.

One of the more prominent labor issues that surfaced in recent months, she said, is a Republican effort to let some employees who work more than 40 hours a week choose between premium pay or compensatory time off scheduled at a later date, both at a 1-1/2-hourly rate. It is now illegal for private companies to offer comp time as an option to millions of workers covered by the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act.

"Comp time doesn't pay your mortgage," McKee said.

Riley said he's undecided on his choice for president but knows many of his members will be influenced by what endorsements the union's headquarters gives. He is leaning toward supporting Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who will formally kick off his national campaign today at 9 a.m. at Patriot's Point in Mount Pleasant.

Riley wants 100 percent participation by union members in the upcoming races and isn't taking excuses for not going to the polls.

"We want them to come back and show us something that proves they voted," he said.

Warner, of Clemson, said that in a close presidential primary where the vote will be split among nine candidates, the workers' bloc could be a determining factor in picking the winner.

"They might, at the margin, make a difference," he said.

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