AFL-CIO Shakedown

Editor's Note: Four of the nation's largest labor unions have announced they will boycott the AFL-CIO convention this week to protest the direction of the federation. The dissident unions represent about one-third of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s 13 million members — they include The Service Employees International Union, the Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers and UNITE HERE, which represents textile and hotel workers.

The New York Times reports that two of the unions -- the SEIU and the Teamsters -- are expected to announce today that they are quitting the federation entirely.

The service employees, with 1.8 million members, and the Teamsters, with 1.4 million, are two of the biggest unions in the A.F.L.-C.I.O. They contribute $20 million dollars each year, or about one-sixth of its budget. The Times calls the split "the biggest rift in labor since the 1930's."

At the heart of the dispute is the decline of organized labor. From a high point of 22.8 million union members in 1978, the ranks of organized labor have dwindled to 15.5 million in 2004.

Dissenting unions have formed their own organization, the Change to Win Coalition, which they hope will foster union growth through organized campaigns against giant companies like Wal-Mart.

The boycotting unions are especially dissatisfied with the leadership of John Sweeney, who has served as AFL-CIO president for the past decade and has been criticized for not investing enough in grassroots organizing.

The A.F.L.-C.I.O. is the nation's main labor federation, a grouping of 56 unions.

Sweeney told the Times, "Not to attend the convention, especially when the differences that remain between our proposals are so narrow, is an insult to their union brothers and sisters, and to all working people."

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! spoke with Jonathan Tasini, former president of the National Writers Union, and author of WorkingLife, a blog of the AFL-CIO convention.

AMY GOODMAN: We go to Chicago right now to Jonathan Tasini, former president of the National Writers Union, and who runs the blog WorkingLife.org. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Jonathan Tasini.

JONATHAN TASINI: It's a pleasure to be here, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: It's good to have you with us. Why don't you run down for us what happened this weekend?

JONATHAN TASINI: Well, first of all, it is very hot here... The Change to Win Coalition, as you mentioned in the lead-up, announced yesterday that they were not going to attend the convention. That includes, by the way, the Farm Workers and the Laborers. Those two are actually going to the convention. The four that you mentioned are not going to the convention.

And you are right, it looks like the Service Employees Union and the Teamsters are going to announce that they are actually leaving the federation this afternoon. The Sweeney supporters held a very exuberant and boisterous rally prior to the announcement by the Change to Win Coalition, and I have to say I was surprised at the anger and almost venom that was expressed by many of the speakers.

Linda Chavez-Thompson, the executive vice president of the AFL-CIO, ran down a list of the enemies of labor, mentioned George Bush, the Right to Work Committee, the Chamber of Commerce, and then her last description was the Change to Win Coalition. So it's pretty heated right now.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the significance of what this means? What it means not to have these unions at the convention, and ultimately, to have the federation split up like this at this time of corporate power?

JONATHAN TASINI: Well, you know, I'm sort of torn by what I feel about this, and I have written a lot about this in the last few weeks.

The future of labor...hangs in the balance; but not so much, in my opinion, because of the differences internally in the federation. When you're less than 8% of the private sector work force, and you're declining, and employers have the upper hand and you have terrible trade agreements, working America and labor unions have been really beaten down. And so the question, and I have raised this a number of times, is whether either "side" has the answer to some very vexing problems and tremendous challenges.