Virginia Robinson stands outside the Chicago Navy Pier Convention Hall asking delegates to the AFL-CIO’s 50th Anniversary Convention for donations. Robinson is a labor union activist and one of several workers locked out of a plant in Cleveland, Ohio, because their employer didn’t like their demands for fair wages and better health care benefits.
Robinson is also one of the over 900 delegates from across the country attending the AFL-CIO Convention from July 25-28 and she is concerned that what’s happening there will make things tougher back home. “What’s going on with labor is horrible,” she says.
What’s happening is a historic rift involving the nation’s 13-million-member labor federation and seven of its largest unions – Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), UNITE/HERE, the Teamsters, Carpenters, Laborers, and United Farm Workers. The seven unions formed the Change to Win Coalition. Four boycotted the convention, and the president of two of those, Andrew L. Stern, head of the 1.7-million-member SEIU, and James P. Hoffa, head of the 1.4-million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters, announced opening day that their unions were withdrawing from the AFL-CIO. This came amid a flurry of activity and debate, both before and during the convention, aimed at identifying and addressing differences.
One such activity was a “National Summit on Labor and Diversity” held July 23 and 24, organized by AFL-CIO constituency groups, including the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), and others. The goal: to discuss how labor’s leadership can better reflect the racial, ethnic and gender diversity of its membership.
Diversity was one of the issues still being debated when the convention began. Other issues included organizing, political activity, community-labor alliances, fighting for the rights of immigrant workers, and more. When the debate reached an impasse, the split occurred.
When the convention opened, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney announced that “several of our largest unions have decided not to join us at this historic convention, this crucial convention.”
Some in the convention hall booed. Some expressed concern that the rift might weaken a powerful force in the struggle for social, political and economic justice both at home and abroad.
Rev. Jesse L. Jackson urged the labor movement to “keep its eyes on the prize,” as he paid tribute to its role in the Civil Rights Era, reminding them that the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was coming up and that labor needed to support the Voting Rights Reauthorization Bill.
Stewart Acuff, organizing director for the AFL-CIO, said that since women of color who belong to unions generally make more than those not in unions, “Women, too, have a lot at stake” in the outcome of the ongoing debate.
The coalition has announced that its next steps involve “mapping out specific plans for joint strategies and mutual support to help workers join us in our core industries on a far greater scale.”
AFL-CIO Convention delegates are considering resolutions about diversity, organizational structure, organizing, domestic and foreign policy, and more. But some suspect that the split may be only temporary.
“In the past every union that has left the federation has returned,” said Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County, Municipal Employees union. What does this mean to Virginia Robinson and thousands of other workers like her? Only time will tell.
