AFL-CIO Falling Apart

The massive AFL-CIO is flying apart. Two of the largest unions, the Teamsters and SEIU are leaving.

"What was being done at the AFL-CIO was not working, and we are going to do something new," said Teamsters President James P. Hoffa as he and SEIU President Andy Stern explained their unions' departure at the start of the AFL-CIO's four-day convention in Chicago.

From high-ranking AFL-CIO officials to heads of local union labor councils, the departure of the two powerful unions and the precedent-setting rift among unions brought anger, frustration and fears that their exit will lead to a heap of problems.

Together, the two unions account for $20 million, or about one-fifth, of the dues collected annually by the AFL-CIO. The federation will lose 3.1 million members, falling to just below 10 million rank and file.

The article doesn't go into the reasons why they are splitting though. Various commentary I've heard relate the problems to how service union people are not truly represented. There also appears to be a large amount of dissatisfaction with how political funding is used to support union causes.

The LATimes has an interesting article with this bit related to politics:

Sweeney, the AFL-CIO president who is expected to be reelected to a third term this week, lambasted the defection in his Monday keynote address.

"At a time when our corporate and conservative adversaries have created the most powerful anti-worker political machine in the history of our country, a divided movement hurts the hopes of working families for a better life," he said.

On Monday, numerous labor experts, union leaders and Democratic politicians said the spin-off could undercut unions' bargaining power and undermine their political sway.

Although unions' financial support is important for Democrats, labor's ability to tell its workers why they should support the party is far more vital, particularly in close races, said Steve Elmendorf, a political strategist and deputy campaign manager for Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, last year's Democratic presidential candidate.

"If we have a divided labor movement in 2008, if they are distracted or divided, that's not going to be helpful to us," Elmendorf said. "This is bad for Democrats, and good for Republicans."

Maybe they are missing the message. Influence that is limited to the minority party doesn't get you very far. Nor does it appear that they understand that not all union members support the democrats.

It will be interesting to see where this all goes in the next few years.