Labor unions fragment and disperse
July 25, 2005
Two large unions announced Monday that they will break with the AFL-CIO and said that they would organize a labor coalition of their own in an attempt to stem recent losses in union membership in the United States.
The break came during the 50th anniversary convention of the AFL-CIO.
One of the breakaway unions, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), was the AFL-CIO’s largest affiliate at a membership of 1.8 million members, was joined by the Teamsters in the largest break in union ranks in the US since the 1930s.
In announcing the break, Teamsters president James P. Hoffa said that unions needed more members in order to change a climate that has undermined workers’ rights in the US.
He criticized the AFL-CIO for moving in the opposite direction of what he said is needed. Meanwhile, AFL-CIO president John Sweeney criticized the break as an insult to rank-and-file union members and claimed that the break will hurt “the hopes of working families for a better life.”
Many labor experts concur, saying that a split will weaken the labor movement politically.
Two other unions, the United Food and Commercial Workers and UNITE HERE, a group of textile and hotel workers, joined the Teamsters and the SEIU in boycotting the AFL-CIO convention, a move that is said to signal their readiness to also leave the coalition.
The four groups together make up around one-third of the AFL-CIO’s membership of 13 million.