HELENA -- The Montana AFL-CIO on Friday issued failing grades to Republican U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns and Rep. Denny Rehberg for what the labor group called their votes against working families in 2005.

"Senator Burns and Congressman Rehberg voted against the interests of working people on almost every issue," said Jim McGarvey, executive secretary of the Montana AFL-CIO. "From retirement security to tax issues, when they had a choice as to whose side they were going to take, Senator Burns and Congressman Rehberg turned their backs on workers and working families."

The AFL-CIO, a federation of some labor unions in Montana, virtually always endorses Democratic candidates and opposes Republicans, just as the national AFL-CIO does.

The national AFL-CIO scorecard said Burns voted for working families three times and against them 11 times, while Rehberg voted for working families two times and against them 11 times. Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, in contrast, voted for working families 10 times and against them four times.

Burns and Rehberg are up for re-election in 2006, with the national and state AFL-CIO expected to play active roles again opposing them.

"Montana is definitely considered as one of the priority states," McGarvey said.

It's not just the money that labor donates to candidates it backs, he said, but the thousands of workers it tries to mobilize to play active roles in the campaigns. The Montana AFL-CIO has 30,000 members, McGarvey said.

"That's the whole idea of our report card so we can let our members know how they will be energized and mobilized into volunteering and working to promote their issues," McGarvey said.

Rehberg's chief of staff Erik Iverson defended the congressman's record and questioned the AFL-CIO's choice of votes for its scorecard.

"No one can credibly question Denny's support for working men and women in Montana," Iverson said. "The fact that he has received support from 10 different trade unions speaks for itself."

A Burns campaign spokesman could not be reached for comment.

McGarvey said the AFL-CIO has made no endorsements yet. Its Committee on Political Education usually recommends endorsements after the labor federation's spring convention and takes the slate to the convention for a vote.

Another labor leader, Joe Dwyer, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 190, called the State Bureau to say he's bothered the AFL-CIO "is using a national agenda to score these guys." He praised all three members of the Montana delegation for voting against Central American Free Trade Agreement, which he said was extremely important to his union because of sugar beet industry in Montana. That was one issue used in the scorecard.

Dwyer's union endorsed Rehberg the past two elections.