Four Unions to Boycott AFL-CIO Convention

[maddezmom]

CHICAGO - Four major unions decided Sunday to boycott the AFL-CIO convention, setting the stage for one or more to bolt from the 50-year-old federation in a battle over how to reverse organized labor's decades-long decline, The Associated Press has learned.

The unions, representing about one-third of the AFL-CIO's 13 million members, planned to announce the decision Sunday afternoon, a day before the convention opens, according to three labor officials familiar with the failed negotiations to avoid the walkout.

It was unclear which, if any, of the unions would take the next step and leave the AFL-CIO altogether

more;http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050724/ap_on_bi_ge/labor_rift

[IndianaGreen]

1. Defection Could Be Just What Organized Labor Needs

For more info on what is going on with AFL-CIO:

http://www.changetowin.org/

Defection Could Be Just What Organized Labor Needs

By Steven Pearlstein

Wednesday, July 20, 2005; Page D01

I'll be rooting from afar this weekend for Andy Stern and all the other dissidents who threaten to break up the house of labor during its showdown convention in Chicago.

One of the best thing that ever happened to the labor movement was the split between the AFL and the CIO in 1935, creating the healthy competition that forced organized labor to retool itself for the industrial era, setting the stage for eventual reunification. The defection of Stern's Service Employees International Union, the AFL-CIO's largest and fastest-growing union, along with the possible departure of the Teamsters and grocery, hotel and needle workers, holds the promise of finally dragging the union movement into the 21st century.

For the past 30 years, organized labor been in a time warp, either oblivious to dramatic changes in the world -- deregulation, globalization, outsourcing and the digital revolution -- or pursuing ill-fated attempts to hold them back.

Even in the golden years of the '50s and '60s, when as many as 1 in 3 private-sector workers was a union member, union strength was concentrated in oligopolistic industries such as steel and autos, or regulated industries such as transportation, communication and power generation, where competition was limited and companies could pass their costs on to consumers.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/19/AR2005071901775.html

[goforit]

2. Corruption has run through every facet of this country.

Time to clean house.....completely.

[kevsand]

3. This isn't about a difference in how to move forward.

The two competing proposals are actually fairly close in spirit, differing only in relatively arbitrary details. This is really about a struggle for personal control between a handful of arrogant, selfish leaders. There are no good guys here, just petulant prima donnas.

As such, the pending split will not make things better for anyone, or even make labor stronger in the long run. It will weaken and divide labor at the worst possible time to do so. And there will be no successful reconciliation until the rank and file get off their asses and reassert themselves, take back democratic control (little 'd') and throw out the jerks at the top in both camps.

[MaineDem]

4. I tend to agree with you

I think it's more about control and less about ideology.

I have my doubts about this split. I don't feel good about it.