Buffalo News (New York), July 25, 2005, Monday

Copyright 2005 Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Copyright 2005 Buffalo News
Buffalo News

July 25, 2005, Monday

HEADLINE: On brink of splitting, AFL-CIO mulls future

BYLINE: By Fred O. Williams

BODY:

The house of labor for 50 years -- the AFL-CIO -- may become a house divided this week, as tension between unions approaches the breaking point.
Seven unions including the Teamsters and Service Employees have joined a dissident group, and some threaten to break away from the rest of labor. The showdown comes at an AFL-CIO meeting in Chicago that begins Monday, in which president John Sweeney seeks re-election amid bitter opposition.
The split might be averted by a financial compromise, and perhaps by Sweeney's departure. But if not, the crisis in big labor would shake blue-collar Buffalo.
"You'd basically end up with two labor councils in the same area," said James Gugliuzza, president of the Niagara-Orleans AFL-CIO Council in Lockport. Dissident unions would exit his council, taking their dues payments with them.
"These are all large unions in Niagara County -- it's a big chunk of change," he said.
The AFL-CIO and the rival coalition would issue separate endorsements for local political races and might even compete for membership, union officials and labor experts said.
"It will be very sad if it happens," said Mark R. Jones, president of the AFL-CIO Buffalo Council. "I would say the future of the Area Labor Federation would be in jeopardy." The federation is the AFL-CIO's regional unit spanning Western New York.
The dissidents in the Change to Win Coalition have about 40 percent of union membership nationally, including tens of thousands of members in the Buffalo area. They are:
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Service Employees International Union, United Food and Commercial Workers, United Brotherhood of Carpenters, Laborers International Union, United Farm Workers, and the hotel and garment workers in UNITE-HERE.
Not all would necessarily leave the AFL-CIO; the Laborers and Farm Workers have pledged to remain, and the Carpenters left in 2001.
The in-house dispute is about labor's loss of clout nationally, but unions remain a force in Western New York. Union members make up 25 percent of the work force in Erie and Niagara counties, about double the national rate. Regionally, about 150,000 workers in six counties belong to the AFL-CIO.
The labor group coordinates local boycotts and organizing drives, but its biggest public role is in politics. With its influential endorsement, plus the ability to deliver canvassers and phone bank staff, labor's stamp of approval is a boon for favored candidates.
"I've always considered it very important for my candidacy," Erie County Legislator Lynn M. Marinelli said. Labor clout is what draws a bevy of political candidates to the Buffalo AFL-CIO's annual picnic, set this year for Friday at Elma Meadows Park.
"The major role of a central labor council is politics at the local level," said Richard W. Hurd, a professor at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor relations.
What might happen to that in a split is hard to figure. Erie County Democratic Party Chairman Leonard R. Lenihan said he doesn't expect labor's traditional support for his party's candidates to waver.
"The bottom line is, we're still the party that's for working people," he said. In primary races, he said he expects the party's endorsed candidate to still have the edge.
However, local units of the dissident unions would set up their own process to review candidates and coordinate endorsements.
"I assume if there was a split, we'd be asked to leave the AFL-CIO" at the local level, said Ronald Lucas, president of Teamsters Joint Council 46 in Buffalo. The Teamster council has 14,000 members at locals in Western New York and Rochester.
Led by SEIU president Andrew Stern, the dissident coalition wants to shift more funds to organizing. Instead, Sweeney and his supporters have focused on political action to promote labor-friendly candidates and policies. Elected in 1995, Sweeney, 71, is blamed by critics for failing to reverse declining membership, which stands at 12.5 percent of workers.
Harsh words have issued from both sides, but some observers wonder how much of the vitriol is calculated bluster.
"We come from bargaining -- we know how to bargain," Gugliuzza said. "My hope is the leadership will come to an agreement."
And the damage of a split would be great. "If the AFL-CIO loses 40 percent of its revenues, it's got problems," Hurd said.
The two sides have quietly discussed compromises that would let Stern and others devote more of their dues to organizing, Hurd said. In addition to boosting organizing, the coalition seeks more mergers between unions and a slimming of AFL-CIO's governing board, expanding the power of the 13 largest members.
Even in a split, some joint efforts between unions on different sides of the divide could continue. Community groups that push for living wages and other labor-oriented issues provide forums outside the AFL-CIO where unions will continue to work together at the local level, Hurd said.
The food workers union leads a multiunion campaign against Wal-Mart, which is seen as a threat to union-represented retailers. That cooperation need not come to an end, even if the food workers leave the AFL-CIO, said Greg Gorea, a representative of the UFCW Local One in Utica.
"We're all in it for the same thing, improving people's jobs," he said. "I don't think that's going to change -- the core beliefs are the same."
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