Jack Reed, the state's senior U.S. senator, has picked up re-election endorsement from the Rhode Island AFL-CIO's executive board, representing 80,000 union members.

The board voted unanimously Monday to support Reed, a Democrat who's been in the Senate 12 years and in Congress a total 16 years, for the November election, based largely on his "record on labor issues during this past session and throughout his career."

A union news release today said Reed's backing legislation increasing the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour and the re-authorization of a health insurance program for more than 6 million low-income children, "greatly impressed the AFL-CIO Executive Board."

Reed's support for the Employee Free Choice Act, which the union characterized as restoring "workers' freedom to form unions and bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions," was another factor.

"In these uncertain economic times Sen. Reed has been a tireless advocate for the hard-working men and women of Rhode Island by supporting issues that are important to working class families," Rhode Island AFL-CIO President Frank Montanaro said in a statement.

Reed sits on the Appropriations Committee, the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, whose chairman is Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with Journal archival reports