Public Employee Press

The World of Work

AFL-CIO: Is it Splitsville?

Is the AFL-CIO marks its 50th anniversary, the future of the labor movement in the United States is up in the air.

As PEP went to press, President John Sweeney appeared to have the votes to win re-election easily at the July 25-28 AFL-CIO convention in Chicago. But a dissident faction representing one-third of the membership has been threatening to pull out of the federation after the convention. The growing tension within the federation foreshadows what will probably be an intense debate at the July meeting over the AFL-CIO’s leadership, policy, institutional structure and budget.

In June, the likelihood of a split appeared more likely as five major national unions announced the formation of a new group, the Change to Win Coalition. The coalition’s primary objective is to reverse the long-term decline in labor’s ranks through coordinated organizing drives, according to the leaders of the five unions. Unions now represent less than 12 percent of the workforce, the lowest percentage in a century.

Gerald W. McEntee, president of DC 37’s national union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and a strong supporter of Sweeney, called the formation of the group harmful to organized labor. “Forming this coalition is a step in the wrong direction because it’s the first step towards a truly divided labor movement,” McEntee said. “To win for working families, we must grow our membership and build more political power and do so as a united labor movement. Splitting the AFL-CIO will mean less power for workers.”

The dissident group includes the Service Employees International Union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the United Food and Commercial Workers, the Laborers’ International Union of North America and Unite HERE.

Organizing vs. politics
As the debate over the future of the labor movement has played out over the past year, differences have emerged about the priorities of the federation. The dissident camp has pressed for a steep increase in funding for organizing and a sweeping consolidation of the federation’s 57 unions into “mega-unions” that would be responsible for boosting labor’s numbers and leading bargaining in specific sectors of the economy.

On the other hand, the Sweeney supporters have criticized the restructuring proposal for concentrating too much power in the federation and impinging on the autonomy of national unions. Under Sweeney, the AFL-CIO has stressed political action more than organizing. Since Sweeney became head of the federation a decade ago, the AFL-CIO has dramatically stepped up its political mobilization. With McEntee heading the federation’s political action committee, labor has worked successfully to increase voting by union households.

But during Sweeney’s tenure, labor’s percentage of the nation’s workforce has continued to decline.
Speaking at the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists convention in May, Sweeney said, “I do not share [the dissidents’] enthusiasm for reshaping the labor movement from top down, forcing mergers of unions, dictating bargaining standards and dividing and weakening the AFL-CIO itself.”

In March, responding to proposals from the insurgents, the AFL-CIO Executive Council approved a plan to cut national unions’ payments to the AFL-CIO by 17 percent, provide another $15 million for organizing and double political expenditures to $45 million a year. The dissident faction said this was inadequate.

After adopting its budget, the AFL-CIO announced in May that it would eliminate 167 of the federation’s 426 positions in addition to restructuring the bureaucracy. The leaders of the Change to Win Coalition compared the group to the Committee for Industrial Organization of the 1930s. The CIO split from the American Federation of Labor with the goal of organizing entire industries. In 1955, the AFL and CIO reunited.

“Workers are under the biggest assault in 80 years,” said Sweeney in a June 15 statement on the new coalition. “Now is the time to use our unity to build real worker power, not create a real divide that serves the corporations and antiworker politicians.”