UPI, November 10, 2004, Wednesday

UPI

November 10, 2004 Wednesday 5:16 PM EST

HEADLINE: UPI NewsTrack Business

ALF-CIO struggles with Bush's re-election
WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- The threat of a split within the AFL-CIO hung over the group's Washington meeting Wednesday in a sign of the movement's deep divisions.
Coming on the heels of President Bush's re-election, threats by the federation's biggest union to pull out and rumors the AFL-CIO's president may lose his job reflect how dissatisfied U.S. labor is with its current political status, the New York Times reported.
On Tuesday, Andrew L. Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, proposed a $25 million per year drive to unionize Wal-Mart and a near doubling in the amount spent annually on organizing. His letter follows Stern's threats to pull his 1.6 million-member union from the AFL-CIO if it doesn't do more to boost membership.
"The labor movement was really shaken by the election and they're also badly divided," said Kate Bronfenbrenner, a labor relations professor at Cornell University, who noted labor unions spent more than $150 million to defeat Bush.