After Quitting A.F.L.-C.I.O., Group Suggests Reunion of Sorts By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
The coalition of unions that broke away from the A.F.L.-C.I.O. has asked that federation to join it in creating a third union federation that would concentrate on political and legislative efforts.
But the federation's president, John J. Sweeney, dismissed the idea, mocking the "obvious irony of a proposal to essentially recreate the A.F.L.-C.I.O. as it existed prior to" the decision by the service employees and three other unions to break away last year.
Anna Burger, the president of Change to Win, the federation of breakaway unions, wrote to Mr. Sweeney two weeks ago to propose forming a new federation, which she said should be called the Alliance for Worker Justice.
"Several important pending issues, including immigration, health care, retirement security, labor law reform and the looming 2006 election cycle," Ms. Burger wrote, "make it imperative that we coordinate our strategies and resources in the interests of all working people in this country."
The new group, she said, would be tax exempt and involved in political action, grass-roots mobilization, member education, legislative initiatives, and health and safety.
She said the current arrangement, in which more than 1,000 of the locals from the breakaway unions remain active in state and local labor federations, would not allow the two national federations to maximize their ability to work together on issues of common concern.
In an April 19 letter that the A.F.L.-C.I.O. released yesterday, Mr. Sweeney dismissed the idea of a new federation, saying his group could do much of what the proposed alliance would do.
"While we will always work to 'coordinate our strategies and resources in the interests of all working people in this country,' " Mr. Sweeney wrote, "the last thing we can imagine doing" a year after the other unions broke away "is investing time and resources into 'co-founding' yet a third labor federation, with all the bureaucracy, expense and additional staffing that would entail."
Last year the service employees, the Teamsters, the United Food and Commercial Workers, and Unite Here, which represents apparel, hotel and restaurant workers, quit the A.F.L.-C.I.O., saying it was focusing too much on politics and not enough on organizing nonunion workers. Subsequently, the carpenters, the laborers and the United Farm Workers joined them.
The federation's 54 unions claim nine million members, while Change to Win's seven unions claim more than five million.
Change to Win has proposed forming the federation as its many union locals participating in the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s state and local labor federations have threatened to withhold all dues payments from those federations.
The Change to Win unions are angry that the A.F.L.-C.I.O. has barred locals from the United Farm Workers from remaining a part of state and local labor federations. The federation took that move to discourage other unions from quitting.