If Al Gore's presidential hopes are slowed by "Clinton fatigue" - a national weariness with our president - Democratic mayoral candidate John Street may be running into some Rendell drag when it comes to city union endorsements.

Despite the urging of Gerald McEntee, the International Vice President of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Workers, Philadelphia's three large AFSCME district councils are balking at backing Street.

A week ago, McEntee summoned district council presidents Pete Matthews, Tom Cronin and Henry Nicholas to Washington to stress the importance of electing a Democratic mayor of Philadelphia as the 2000 presidential election approaches.

Connections abound here. McEntee is the Democratic National Committee member who introduced Mayor Rendell when he was elected DNC general chairman Saturday. Rendell is an ardent Street supporter.

The Philadelphia leaders listened to McEntee, but Matthews, who heads AFSCME District Council 33, the largest municipal union, said his members were wary.

"We took some pretty tough hits in the past," Matthews said yesterday, "and I have to be convinced that the person I support is going to be honest and sincere about the things that have happened, and right now, I'm not comfortable with anybody."

Street has been endorsed by the Philadelphia AFL-CIO Council and will get substantial support from the building trades and other unions, but his role in the hard-fought 1992 contract battles is still remembered bitterly by many city union officials.

Rendell sought huge cost savings from the contracts then to ease the city's fiscal crisis, and Street entered the negotiations directly to get the job done.

District Council 47, the white-collar union headed by Cronin, was to have a delegate assembly this week to discuss a mayoral endorsement, but the event was postponed at McEntee's request.

Though Cronin declined to speculate on his members' preferences, he acknowledges there are hard feelings toward Street, and some interest in Republican Sam Katz, who's expressed support for a labor-management collaboration under way now in city government.

Nicholas, an AFSCME International vice president who heads the hospital workers union, supported Democrat John F. White Jr. in the spring primary.

"I've made no decision yet," Nicholas said of the November election. "The timing is not yet ripe." McEntee could not be reached for comment.

Many observers believe that in the end, AFSCME locals will sit out the general election. Katz's campaign manager, Bob Barnett, said that prospect was telling.

"It's late in the game for them not to be supporting John Street," Barnett said yesterday. "And I think it reinforces the fact that he was unable to bring his former opponents together."

But while you might think a Democrat could expect public unions' support, you have to go all the way back to 1983 to find either of the city AFSCME district councils supporting a Democrat over a Republican in a mayoral contest.

In 1991 and 1995, the blue-collar union backed Republicans Joe Egan and Joe Rocks over Rendell, while the white-collar union stayed neutral. In 1987, bitterness over a 20-day strike in 1986 prompted both district councils to withhold support from Democrat Wilson Goode.

Among other public employee unions, the Fraternal Order of Police has decided not to endorse either candidate because they didn't support a union-backed pension bill last year. The firefighters union may yet weigh in.

And the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, perhaps the most potent political force of the bunch, will poll its members next week. Many consider Street a favorite because of Katz's pro-voucher stance, but Street's support of Schools Superintendent David Hornbeck is unpopular among some teachers.