Everybody sing! "Solidarity For…

…fifty years…"



The Change To Win faction in the AFL-CIO is now officially out. Four international unions have opted out of the convention, and at least one, the Teamsters, has confirmed that it will be leaving the Federation.

Tim Nesbitt, representing the Oregon AFL-CIO at the convention, makes a good point...

...I had hoped that the “Change to Win” unions would participate in the convention to carry forward the debate about the future of our union movement. After all, they started that debate, which is just beginning to register with union members and working people who care about what’s happening to their jobs in this country. So why back out of the debate now?

But, four of the “Change to Win” unions (SEIU, the Teamsters, UFCW and UNITE/HERE) decided today that they’re not going to participate in the convention.

It's pretty hard to figure out the reasoning behind the proposition that working people are stronger when they're divided. Seems contrary to the whole point of unions in the first place for me. Of course, Jimmy Hoffa leading the Teamsters out of the AFL-CIO isn't anything particularly new. The SEIU leadership revealed it's willingness to seek advantage through political division in the '04 primaries, so that's not too shocking. UFCW is scared stiff by the specter of Walmart, so I could understand some irrational behavior there. I don't know what UNITE/HERE's particular issues might be, and I'm wondering what happened to the Laborers, who I've generally seen mentioned with the Change To Win unions.

I'm not sure what it will all mean yet (who is?) but I don't really see much good coming from this.

Not a good day for labor, I'm afraid. Not a good day for Democrats, either.