Sit-Down In Vegas: AFL-CIO Split?

28 February 2005 |permalink | email article

The AFL-CIO’s winter executive meeting begins tomorrow. It’s potentially the most defining moment since the American Federation of Labor and the more liberal Congress of Industrial Organizations merged in 1955. The summit centers on the union’s future: sweeping self-analysis and calls for major reform in the wake of John Kerry‘s 2004 loss despite labor’s largest and most sophisticated voter turnout operation ever. The reform push also has huge implications for Democratic politics. AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney calls the sit-down an “historic occasion.” He offers compromises, including a budget cut to put more cash into more aggressive recruiting drives, but provides no details.

The Wall Street Journal‘s Jeanne Cummings writes: “But even if Mr. Sweeney has embraced some reform ideas, it remains unclear whether the 70-year-old labor president, renowned for his diplomatic skills, can implement sweeping changes fast enough to satisfy a coalition of union leaders threatening to create an alternate organization that would drain strength and stature from the AFL-CIO.”

This debate is driven by a decades-long decline in union membership and loss of political clout in an increasing global economy. When the merger took place, union members represented 34% of the work force, compared with 12% today. The drop was initially due in largely to adverse economic conditions when President Lane Kirkland took over in 1979 before being forced out under pressure in 1995.

Several key unions, including the Service Employees International Union, headed by onetime Sweeney ally Andrew Stern, back a proposal by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to allow unions to allot 50% of their AFL-CIO dues to organizing efforts, roughly reducing the federation’s roughly $124 million budget by a third. Stern, citing Kerry’s defeat, told reporters “we’re verging on irrelevancy.” The real news is his vow to create an alternative labor organization, “United to Win, ” if the AFL-CIO leadership doesn’t implement major changes. One is merging smaller unions to increase their clout, a move Sweeney opposes. Other unions think the internal battle is a waste of time; the International Association of Fire Fighters suggested outreach to Republicans but no GOP speaker is on the agenda.

Both factions agree organizing Wal-Mart Stores Inc.‘s army of workers is a major AFL-CIO goal. Sweeney proposes a multimillion-dollar campaign; Stern wants a commitment of over $20 million. Wal-Mart scored a victory late last week when a union drive failed in a tiny auto shop in Loveland, Colo., enabling the retailer to continue to boast that none of its 1.2 million U.S. workers is affiliated with organized labor.

Expect no decisions on changes until July when union leaders hold their annual convention in Chicago. Reformers insist that despite a possible reputure, they will work with the AFL-CIO on lobbying and political outreach. The crisis in Las Vegas recalls past internal union wars - and reconcilations. In 1957 the AFL-CIO adopted antiracket codes and the convention expelled the Teamsters Union. After a bitter battle between AFL-CIO President George Meany and United Automobile Workers President Walter Reuther, who opposed Meany’s more conservative approach to civil rights and social welfare programs, the UAW withdrew from the union in 1968.

Campaign 2008/California

Democratic donors steel themselves as potential candidates parachute into the Golden State. A full three years and nine months before the next presidential election, with no incumbent president or vice president in the ring, the 2008 presidential race will be the first entirely open election since the 1950s, Carla Marinucci reports in The San Francisco Chronicle.  Can ‘08 Republican hopefuls be far behind?

Four Democratic senators and wanna be presidents are already in play: Delaware’s Joseph Biden, who strongly suggested Sunday on “Meet the Press” that he will run, had a “meet and greet” in San Francisco last week;  Indiana’s Evan Bayh is planning a visit during the next legislative break; North Carolina’s John Edwards addresses the Bar Association of San Francisco on St. Paddy’s Day; and Massachusetts’s Kerry thanked supporters for California’s electoral votes early this month in Los Angeles and San Francisco. New York’s Hillary Clinton, very popular in the Bay Area, is not expected soon. But party activists juice about Howard Dean in his first state visit since becoming DNC chairman. Dean will also address the AFL-CIO exec meeting. Is there a date yet for the first “odd couple” TV debate between Dean and RNC chairman Ken Mehlman, his savvy counterpart who managed W.‘s campaign?

Comedy Politic

Bulletin for those of us who are Jon Stewart fans. Dubbed “the most trusted fake in American news,” Stewart may branch out beyond the confines of Comedy Central, the cable channel that airs “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart” and take his humor campaign to network television. The Los Angeles Times reports that Comedy Central has agreed to finance Stewart’s productions and its development of television projects, with part of the deal allowing to him to flirt with outsiders when looking for a home for these projects. Considering the struggle of political humor on prime time network TV, there is ample room for a new Will Rogers.

A recent taste from Stewart’s “Daily Show” on Comedy Central (via WashPost):

“All past disagreements completely pushed aside, the president shared his vision of transatlantic cooperation in Iraq. (He plays an audio of Bush telling Europeans: “In the coming months, Iraq’s newly-elected assembly will carry out the important work of establishing a government. . . . Now is the time for established democracies to give tangible political economic and security assistance to the world’s newest democracy..’)

“Yes, it’s the Bush version of the Pottery Barn rule: We broke it, you bought it.”

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