CWA 1180 - News

Labor movement splits
July 2005

On day one of the AFL-CIO’s 50th anniversary convention in Chicago, the Service Employees union (SEIU) along with the Teamsters, called a press conference to announce that they were leaving the federation. SEIU president Andy Stern said it was “not a happy or easy decision” but that leaving provided “an enormous opportunity” to confront “the most rapid transformative moment in economic history.”

These two unions, along with the UFCW, UNITE/HERE, the Laborers, and the Farm Workers, embrace the “Change to Win” platform, which advocates abandoning the trade union model in favor of large industrial unions and devoting the bulk of union resources to new member organizing.Together SEIU and the Teamsters constituted a quarter of the AFL-CIO membership, so their departure will diminish the AFL-CIO's numbers by some 3 million and its budget by $20 million. UFCW, with another 1.4 million members, formally disaffiliated a few days later, and other Change to Win unions may follow their lead. While a Wall Street Journal editorial declared the downfall of labor, progressive outlets such as the American Prospect hold out the hope that the energy of the dissidents will spark a period of intense organizing. It may also open the door to union-versus-union fights during organizing drives for new members or raids of existing shops.

Both sides chose not to take the high road in Chicago—representatives of unions loyal to the AFL-CIO were escorted out of SEIU press conferences, while AFL-CIO president John Sweeney called the unions’ departure “a grievous insult.” Much of the battle will play out in central labor councils and state federations, which are able to orchestrate local political organizing because member unions pay them per capita dues. SEIU and the Teamsters have instructed their locals to keep participating and paying dues, but Sweeney has proposed strict conditions for their continued involvement.

Anti-war resolution passes

Despite these dramatic developments, business went on inside the AFL-CIO convention, where delegates passed some historic resolutions of their own. They adopted a values statement that included opposition to the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would revise the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. They passed a resolution on diversity in the labor movement, which calls for women and minorities to make up at least 40 percent of the AFL-CIO’s executive board, a rule that promises to force substantial change in the present, white-male-dominated board. They passed a declaration of independence from the Democratic Party, asserting that they will reward pro-labor Republicans and punish anti-labor Democrats. And they passed a tradition-shattering anti-war resolution.

This resolution, charging that “the American people were misinformed before the war began” and calling on our nation’s leaders to “bring [the troops] home rapidly,” marks the first time in the history of the labor movement that it has opposed U.S. foreign policy, a development that came out of intense grass-roots organizing over the past two years at unions and central labor councils that produced dozens of antiwar resolutions. CWA played a critical role in moving this resolution in Chicago, especially Executive Vice President Larry Cohen, who worked behind the scenes to get AFL-CIO leaders to strengthen the language on bringing the troops home, and CWA’s Public and Healthcare Sector Vice President Brooks Sunkett, a Vietnam veteran who gave the first speech in favor of the resolution. “It was a mistake to go to war,” he said, “and it is a mistake to stay there.”

Back to News & Views page