The American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is splitting apart on the eve of its 50th convention, with the Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) announcing that they will be boycotting the convention and likely disaffiliating from the AFL-CIO, the United States largest organized labor group. The United Food and Commercial Workers, UNITE HERE, and the United Farm Workers, all members of the "Change to Win" Coalition are also boycotting the convention while calling for reforms that will allow them to expend more resources on organizing. Before announcing their decision to leave the AFL-CIO, the Change to Win Coalition called for a number of reforms in the AFL-CIO including using half the body's budget for organizing, uniting workers by industry, launching a major campaign to take on "anti-worker" companies, and build cross-border solidarity with other unions.
Confronted by decades of union busting, benefit cuts, privatization, job and pension loss, racism, continuing attacks on public education and health care systems, a dismal foreign policy record, [ 2 ] and the abject failure by the Federation to stem the rightward turn of the Democratic Party, the "crisis" in the AFL-CIO had been gathering for years. Still, the conflict thus far has consisted mainly of rival union leaders arguing with each other and has seen little involvement with the rank-and-file workers. The two sides in the debate are largely disagreeing over the way the AFL-CIO is structured and not the more fundamental questions about how unions are organized, which workers should be organized, and the fundamental conservatism of the US labor movement.
Aside from the split, another contentious issue at the convention is labor's position on the occupation of Iraq. US Labor Against the War is working to get the AFL-CIO to adopt a resolution opposing the occupation of Iraq and calling for the withdrawal of US troops, but the AFL-CIO's draft resolution on Iraq makes no such call and instead contains statements of "support" for the troops.
For more on the AFL-CIO's conference, check out the Chicago IMC and Working Life.
