The news that John Edwards is reportedly spending Labor Day in Pittsburgh, where he'll be endorsed by the Steelworkers, is big, and keeps his argument that he's the candidate of labor strong, if not automatic.

But the divisions in big labor remain yet another of the key differences between this year and 2004 (Could two years really be any more different?), in which Dick Gephardt's claim to labor — despite a few defections to Dean — was unarguable.

By Labor Day, 2004, Gephardt was touting a dozen union endorsements, including major ones like the Teamsters, Steelworkers, Machinists and the OPEIU.

You can see the lopsided tally here.

By contrast, the big unions out so far have split among Edwards, Clinton and Dodd.

NOTE: The Edwards camp hasn't confirmed the Post-Gazette story (which has good detail) on the Steelworker endorsement.