Fallout from union split
In a historic move, two of the nation's biggest unions voted Monday to quit the AFL-CIO, the labor confederation that has coordinated union activities for 50 years.
Just as the AFL-CIO began its annual convention in Chicago, the Teamsters, with 1.4 million members, and the Service Employees International Union, with 1.8 million, announced they would withdraw and spend on organizing campaigns the dues they used to send to the Washington, D.C.-based confederation. They plan to send some of their former dues to a new group, called the "Change to Win Coalition."
Two additional members of the new coalition, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and UNITE HERE, the merger between the garment workers and restaurant workers' unions, pulled their delegations from the convention, and were considering quitting the old federation altogether.
Two other members of the new coalition, the Laborers International Union of North America and the United Farm Workers, sent their delegates to the convention, however. One member of the new coalition, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America doesn't belong to the AFL.
The division was sparked by some union leaders' concerns that the AFL-CIO's strategies were not halting the steady decline of union membership, which has fallen from a high of 35 percent to just 12 percent of the workforce today. But AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who is running unopposed for re-election this year, tried to persuade the dissidents to remain, arguing that a rift would weaken the labor movement at a time when it is under assault from business-friendly lawmakers. Outsiders, however, were divided over whether the division would help or hurt the movement. Ken Margolies, a former organizer who now runs a labor education program for Cornell University, said that if the division leads to unions raiding each other for members, workers won't benefit much. But, he argued, "this could stimulate some changes that would be good for the labor movement, such as more aggressive organizing. This could lead to a revival, or a collapse," he said. "Either way, it is historic."
In comments before the convention Margolis spoke with U.S. News about the rift. Read his take on the controversy: Union rift a revival or a collapse? (7/25/05)