After what they saw as a series of letdowns on a broad array of issues, in mid-May, the New York State AFL-CIO launched its first-ever in-session campaign against sitting members of the Senate.

In robocalls and flyering in five Senate districts (four Democrats and one Republican), the 2.5-million-member union called out individual senators who had run with labor support in the past but who the union maintains have been anti-labor on a number of legislative items they care about, including the governor’s construction freeze and the freeze on public-sector wage increases; the lack of IDA reform, a farm workers’ bill of rights or an unemployment insurance increase; and votes to lift the charter-school cap and for a property-tax cap.

But as the campaign continues into its fourth week, the AFL-CIO faces a series of challenges in trying to change the direction of the State Senate.

The most recent has been the rollout of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s lengthy policy platform, which calls for a freeze in public-sector wages, a property-tax cap and an increase in the charter-school cap, plus a call for lawmakers in Albany to sign onto his fiscally conservative agenda.

Andrew Pallotta, the executive vice-president with NYSUT, a key player in the campaign’s decision to go after vocal pro-charter senators such as Craig Johnson, predicted that the union would seek to change the thinking of candidates who are veering toward what might seem politically popular at the moment.

“When we get out there and educate the public, we will change the way that these politicians are trained,” Pallotta said.

But the issues being pushed by the AFL-CIO are not all popular in many of the districts being targeted. In fact, State Sen. Jeff Klein, a champion of a property-tax cap that would sap a projected $1 billion from the budget, said constituents in his Bronx/Westchester district had given him largely positive feedback to the labor-backed campaign.

A staffer for another targeted senator said they hoped the AFL-CIO campaign would continue through November.

“They’re in the suburbs criticizing us for not passing the farm bill and wanting a property-tax cap?” said Rich Azzopardi, Johnson’s spokesman. “I hope that every resident in the district gets one of those.”

The flyers targeting the five senators have highlighted the same 10 issues, regardless of geographic area, though districts range from New York City to the North Country.

The AFL-CIO usually holds off on targeting senators in their districts until after the legislative session for fear of upsetting the union’s legislative priorities.

But this time the organization’s leadership felt that the Senate had taken a disturbing anti-union turn, and the campaign is an attempt to salvage what was left of the legislative session and to make sure that their membership is not taken for granted, said Mario Cilento, the union’s chief of staff.

“In terms of our issues, it’s pretty simple,” Cilento said. “Nothing’s been done.”

The broadness of the campaign is striking. The AFL-CIO leadership had to gain consensus from some of its leading member unions to launch the campaign, including Gary Labarbera at Greater New York Building Trades, Dick Iannuzzi at NYSUT, Danny Donahue at CSEA, among others, reflecting the depth of the discontent with the Senate leadership.

However, the big-tent nature of the campaign has also created some strange bedfellows. The flyers advocate both lifting the freeze on construction spending and the freeze on public-employee salary increases. Separately, the building trades unions have blamed the public-sector unions for not sharing in the sacrifices in the state budget and for refusing to give up their annual four-percent salary increases.

None of the targeted Democratic lawmakers so far—Klein, Johnson, José Peralta or Darrel Aubertine—nor the lone Republican, John Flanagan—are considered especially vulnerable, leading to speculation that the union is simply using the low-risk offensive to send a message without actually assisting either party as the crucial 2010 elections approach.

Cilento seemed to acknowledge this, pointing out how much time the senators have to make amends.

“Our political convention is in August, there is plenty of time,” he said, while noting, “but it might be difficult.”

Though the Senate Democrats may not have been particularly labor-friendly since the Senate coup, the leadership of Senate Republicans under Dean Skelos has not been especially labor-friendly either, so the AFL-CIO knows that they must tread lightly, since if a few of the targeted Senators lose, the body’s control could swing to the right again.

Cilento said the AFL-CIO, and the labor movement generally, was still trying to figure out what to do going forward, calling the current campaign a “snapshot in time.”

“As things stand today, we’re vastly disappointed with the State Senate,” Cilento said. “Our goal is to have a working relationship with them.”