The Unions are coming apart at the seams, (..effectively dooming the Demoncrap Party..)
that has already relegated it's fate to wierdo's, flakes, commie's, homo's, and lezzies...!!!
Four Unions Agree to Boycott AFL-CIO's Annual Meeting (Update1)
July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Four unions representing about 30 percent of the AFL-CIO's U.S. membership agreed to boycott the labor federation's annual convention, a first step toward one of the biggest splits in the organized labor movement in 70 years.
The Service Employees International Union, the AFL-CIO's fastest growing union with 1.3 million members, along with the Teamsters, the United Food and Commercial Workers, and Unite Here won't attend this week's AFL-CIO meeting in Chicago, Anna Burger, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees group, said at a press conference today.
The unions are at odds with AFL-CIO President John Sweeney over how to revive the power of organized labor at a time when private-sector union membership has dipped below 8 percent, the lowest level since the 1920s. The AFL-CIO, an umbrella organization for 56 unions representing about 13 million people, has been on the losing end of battles with corporations determined to pass along health care costs to employees.
``It is clear that this convention will not adopt a strategy that we believe will win for working people,'' said Burger, chairman of the Change to Win coalition formed last month by the four unions and the Laborers.
Possible Split
The walkout from the convention by Service Employees President Andrew Stern, 54, and the three other dissident labor chiefs may turn into a decision to pull out of the AFL-CIO entirely as early as tomorrow, union officials familiar with the matter said earlier today.
``It would be awful,'' historian Studs Terkel said in an interview Friday. ``The last thing labor needs is a split.''
The Laborers and the United Farm Workers, which joined the coalition last week, say they don't plan to boycott the convention or leave the AFL-CIO. They said they will continue to work with Change to Win.
Sweeney, 71, earlier today said he hasn't been notified about any walkouts. Still, the absence of the dissident unions set the tone for today's pre-convention rally for Sweeney, who's running unopposed for another four-year term on Thursday.
``Keep faith with our solidarity,'' Sweeney told a group of at least 1,000 AFL-CIO delegates and supporters, including the United Auto Workers, Steelworkers and Machinists unions. ``You just never know, those who've lost their common sense might come to their senses some day.''
The federation formed 50 years ago when the AFL and CIO merged after a 1935 rift within organized labor over whether to organize industrial industries such as automakers.
Call for Unity
AFL-CIO officials stressed unity at today's rally. Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson listed the dissident unions along with the Chamber of Commerce and President George W. Bush as being among forces that won't shake the federation's solidarity.
Sweeney backers said such barbs don't mean the two sides won't reconcile.
``When I've been at bargaining tables I've called management lots worse things and somehow we've managed to get to a settlement,'' Machinists President Thomas Buffenbarger told reporters today.
Sweeney was first elected president in 1995 after blasting his predecessor, Lane Kirkland, for failing to reverse a decline in the number of U.S. workers in unions. Supporters and critics alike credit Sweeney for strengthening labor's political efforts even as membership has continued to fall.
Stern and others say it's time for change and accuse Sweeney of focusing too much on politics. They say more money needs to go to efforts to organize non-union workers and campaigns taking on antiunion companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
``I admire Sweeney very much, but I don't believe he's the person to lead the movement at this moment in our history,'' said Unite Here President Bruce Raynor, who helped organize workers at a J.P. Stevens & Co.'s textile plant in North Carolina 30 years ago, an effort chronicled in the 1979 movie ``Norma Rae.''
Majority Support
Raynor and other dissidents say they didn't put anyone up to challenge Sweeney partly because the majority of AFL-CIO members still back him.
Sweeney supporters say the dispute has more to do with who has the power rather than with organizing workers.
``They couldn't steal the presidency from him,'' Steelworkers President Leo Gerard said today. ``Deciding not to show up certainly leaves the indication that this was nothing but a disguised power grab.''
To contact the reporter on this story:
Kim Chipman in Washington at kchipman@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: July 24, 2005 18:00 EDT
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