The largest U.S. labor federation, AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations), yesterday announced its endorsement for the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, Barack Obama in the presidential race.

On Thursday, AFL-CIO announced that it would put in its whole-hearted efforts to get union voters to the polls on behalf of Obama, in November.

AFL-CIO umbrellas 56 labor unions and 15 million U.S. workers, who will now rally for Obama in the upcoming elections.

“We'll work our hearts out for Barack Obama,” said Gerald McEntee, chairman of the AFL-CIO political committee and president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

“Our program is going to be worker to worker and neighbor to neighbor. We're ready to mobilize,” he said.

This support came largely due to Hillary Clinton, who was now endorsing Obama.

The labor federation has budgeted about $54 million for campaigning on behalf of Obama. It will focus on mobilizing 13 million union members in 24 priority states.

This kind of support will help Obama in gaining strength at the grass-root level and will help him perform better in the proletarian states where he, initially, had difficulty in winning over white working-class voters.