INDIANAPOLIS — A rivalry among organized labor groups and a dispute over state workers’ bargaining rights are costing Democrat Jill Long Thompson money and volunteers in her bid to upset incumbent Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels.

Although Democrats traditionally are supported by major union groups, the United Auto Workers union and AFL-CIO — which supported Long Thompson’s opponent in the May primary — have refused to fully endorse her candidacy.

Long Thompson’s ties to another major union, the Service Employees International Union — which has contributed nearly $1 million to her campaign — are complicating matters.

Ray Scheele, a political science professor at Ball State University, told The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne for a story published Monday that the UAW and AFL-CIO have weakened since the SEIU split and the groups are now battling each other for membership and dues.

That battle appears to be at the heart of the problem for Long Thompson, along with the debate over her commitment to restoring the bargaining rights of state workers if she were to defeat Daniels.

In the early 1990s, then-Gov. Evan Bayh signed an executive order allowing state employees to collectively bargain. The Unity Team won a long battle to represent four different sectors of employees, while the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees won the right to represent several other sectors.

Bayh then issued a second executive order recognizing the unions and the units they represented.

Democratic Govs. Frank O’Bannon and Joe Kernan renewed those executive orders after taking office, but Daniels stripped those rights on his first day in office.

Long Thompson has pledged to restore collective bargaining rights for state employees, but the AFL-CIO and UAW want her to go further and promise to recognize the two unions that were elected previously to bargain for state employees.

If not, a new organizing effort would have to be undertaken and other unions — including SEIU — could win the right to represent the 20,000 state employees.

“The primary is over and it’s time for everybody to get together,” said Mo Davison, director of UAW Region 3, which includes Indiana and Kentucky. “We’re ready to do that if we feel she does the right things for our members. We have met with her personally. She understands the issue. The ball is in her court.”

Travis Lowe, campaign manager for Long Thompson, said he couldn’t speak to the disagreement between the unions.

“Jill has stated many times that she strongly believes in employees, whether private or public, having the right to collectively bargain and has pledged to restore that right. She still stands by that and is absolutely going to do that,” he said. “But it is not Jill’s choice who those employees are represented by it’s the choice of the employees.”

Lowe said many members of the unions if not the leadership are strongly behind Long Thompson.

“The support for Jill is wide and deep among organized labor,” he said.

Orval E. Plumlee, president of UAW Local 2209 in Fort Wayne, said he expects the disagreement to fade soon.

“It’s a matter of timing and working out the details,” he said. “I can guarantee you we will not be endorsing Mr. Daniels.”

Daniels, meanwhile, has garnered some union support of his own, including individual leaders in various building trades, the Professional Firefighters Union of Indiana and the Indiana Fraternal Order of Police.

Cam Savage, spokesman for Daniels’ campaign, said the biggest reason behind their union success is that people see Daniels is creating jobs.

“There is plenty of room in this movement for anyone who wants Indiana to get on track and succeed,” Savage said.