Chicago Tribune, November 11, 2004, Thursday

Copyright 2004 Chicago Tribune Company
Chicago Tribune

November 11, 2004 Thursday
Chicago Final Edition

SECTION: NEWS ; ZONE C; Pg. 16

HEADLINE: Union seeks AFL-CIO shake-up

BYLINE: By Stephen Franklin, Tribune staff reporter.

BODY:
His warning came a day after Stern sent union leaders a broad proposal to revamp the labor federation and launched a Web site, UniteToWin.org, based on the plan, which calls in part for empowering the AFL-CIO to oversee member unions' bargaining. He said President Bush's re-election made it "urgent" for unions to act.
Urging action before Bush begins his second term in January, Stern said he had been prepared to discuss his plan with union officials meeting Wednesday in Washington to review the 2004 campaign. But the political discussions consumed the whole meeting, much to his disappointment, he said.
Officials from the AFL-CIO, an umbrella organization for 60 of the nation's unions and their 13 million members, said federation President John Sweeney asked a group of union officials to come up with proposals addressing Stern's issues at the labor leaders' February meeting in Los Angeles.
But one high-ranking AFL-CIO official, who asked not to be named, said some leaders had other reasons for passing over Stern's proposal. They considered his widely publicized effort "grandstanding" and "were unwilling to grant Andy a big fight, because that is what he wanted," the official said.
Stern is calling for the merger of smaller unions, for giving the AFL-CIO the power to oversee unions' bargaining and organizing, and for the labor federation to force unions to stick to their core industries and not randomly recruit new members.
Despite dwindling memberships and budgets, many smaller unions have resisted mergers, saying they do not want to lose their identities. Many unions have insisted on representing diverse kinds of workers, saying they need new blood to stay alive. The AFL-CIO is a loose confederation with little power over its members.
Any changes in the federation's makeup would have to be approved at its July convention in Chicago, where Sweeney is expected to face a re-election battle led by Stern and like-minded union leaders.
An outspoken maverick among labor leaders, Stern has pointed repeatedly to labor's steadily declining share of the workforce and diminished clout at the bargaining table.
The nation's unions account for 8.2 percent of the private workforce and 12.9 percent of all workers. In the 1950s, one-third of all workers belonged to a union.
Richard Hurd, a Cornell University labor expert, likened Stern's criticism to United Mine Workers President John L. Lewis' drive in 1935 to break from the AFL--the American Federation of Labor--and form a new organization to serve industrial workers. That group became the Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO. The groups merged in 1955.
Some unions, Hurd predicted, will accept Stern's proposals and "ask what else are we going to do." But most unions, Hurd said, are likely to be "very cautious" and question his plans.
Stern has hinted before that his union might break from the AFL-CIO. But he never has been so outspoken about it.In a note to union officials before Wednesday's meeting, Sweeney said he agreed with many of Stern's proposals. He also urged the union leaders "to be big enough" to discuss them without resorting to "an us-against-them stance."