Union Chopping Block

Prospect: Will The AFL-CIO Split Bring Better Organizing?

(The American Prospect)  This column was written by Robert Kuttner.

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To nobody's great surprise, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Teamsters have left the AFL-CIO, and at least two other unions may soon follow.

In part, this schism reflects rivalries of turf, personality, pride, and money -- the ambition of new challengers versus the self-interest and dignity of the existing leadership. The challengers didn't have the support to vote John Sweeney out, so they walked.

As my friend Marshall Ganz, former organizing director of the United Farm Workers, observes, this schism is also about principled differences of how to rebuild a struggling movement. Organize by trade, industry, or community? Build a centralized movement or a popular, democratic one? These differences have echoes in the history of the labor movement, going back to the 19th-century Knights of Labor, the "Wobblies," and the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO).

Ironically, Sweeney himself is a militant at heart. As the anti-establishment candidate in 1995, he made some of the same demands as today's insurgents, and he implemented many. It's a tragedy for the labor movement that Sweeney and his spiritual children could not have brokered a compromise allowing him to take a final bow and then bless the next generation of activists.

At the level of strategy, many unions that emphasize organizing -- notably the SEIU and the merged textile, hotel, and restaurant workers union (UNITE HERE) -- want the AFL-CIO to rebate half of the member contributions to constituent unions, to the extent that they spend that money on organizing. They want to slash the AFL-CIO's headquarters staff and reduce its spending on politics. Sweeney met their demands halfway, but the walkout movement had its own momentum. The Teamsters, who haven't done a lot of organizing lately, and whose connection to the AFL-CIO has been intermittent, went along mainly for the dues money.

In the end, does this split portend a stronger or weaker labor movement?

For now, it's a real setback. Even a weakened AFL-CIO is still a crucial voice on pro-worker legislation and for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. It's one more progressive institution that seems on the ropes.

Below the national radar, the AFL-CIO has done important work helping to create local and state labor councils, which often become key players in local politics. In Los Angeles, the local labor federation was a major factor in the rise of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. This may be jeopardized.