Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, July 23, 2005, Saturday

Copyright 2005 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
All Rights Reserved
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (New York)

July 23, 2005 Saturday Metro Edition

SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 12D

HEADLINE: Area unions undeterred by national animosity

BYLINE: Joy Davia, JDAVIA@DemocratandChronicle.com

BODY:
Joy Davia
Staff Writer
David Young and Dan Kuntz, organizers for different area unions, have worked together for about a year - picketing together, lobbying Washington together, volunteering for charity together.
So as they wandered the aisles of a Gates mini-mart, getting food for their hungry pickets, they said they couldn't see how the potential rupturing of organized labor nationally could tear their relationship apart.
They said this despite the fact that their unions are at different ends of the debate raging within the AFL-CIO. Seven of the nation's largest unions - including Kuntz's Laborers' International Union - have created a coalition advocating for change within AFL-CIO. Some unions in this Change to Win Coalition have even threatened to bolt from the federation.
"I am scared. I hope it doesn't happen," Young said as he grabbed a bag of pretzels and placed it into Kuntz's shopping cart. "But having (the local AFL-CIO) is such a great asset that I'm sure the groups here will continue working together."
Other local union leaders have echoed similar sentiments. In fact, they've agreed to work together, no matter what happens next week at the AFL-CIO's annual convention in Chicago, said Jim Bertolone, president of the Rochester and Genesee Valley Labor Federation, a unit of the AFL-CIO.
"We won't let this tear us apart at the local level," he said. "None of us wants to see what we've built here, and the clout we have here, weaken. We know it'll hurt us all."
The other unions in the dissident coalition are UNITE HERE, Teamsters, Service Employees International Union, United Farm Workers, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. They account for 15 percent to 20 percent of the Rochester and Genesee Valley Area Labor Federation's 100,000 membership in the 11-county area.
What's at risk locally? A split could shrink unions' organizing and political clout here - maybe creating a worst-case scenario in which unions here poach members from each other, said Lance Compa, who teaches labor law at Cornell University.
"The impulse toward solidarity is a lot stronger at the local level," he said. "These people know each other personally and work with each other every day. So I do hope they hold it together at the local level if there is a split.
"But I also think statements of good intentions could fall by the wayside. It will only take one union to start raiding another, and (then) all bets are off."
Compa called a potential split "a terrible mistake," adding that a central organization is needed to boost labor's membership. Last year, 12.5 percent of the work force was unionized, compared with 20.1 percent in 1983, the first year comparable data was available, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But that's the issue at the root of this division. The warring factions in organized labor can't agree on how to reverse the membership decline.
The coalition, for example, wants the 13 million-member AFL-CIO to stop focusing so much on political activism and instead devote more time and money to organizing.
At the forefront of this movement has been Service Employees International Union. Bruce Popper, SEIU's local leader, agreed that no matter what happens, unions here agreed to continue supporting each other. But what that exactly means will depend on what happens at next week's convention, he added.
One option, if there is a split, for unions who leave the AFL-CIO is to still allow their locals to continue paying dues and participating in local labor councils, said Bertolone, the local Labor Federation president.
In the meantime, Young, of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 86, and Kuntz, who also is business agent for the Laborers' Local 435, said they would continue to hope a split doesn't happen.
After all, unions depend on each other for support, whether it means more power at the bargaining table or help in picketing and fighting legislation.
Thursday morning, for example, unions in the Rochester Building and Construction Trades Council joined to picket at the Walgreens construction sites in Gates and Irondequoit.
"We need to band together to make the labor movement strong," Kuntz said.

GRAPHIC: Different local unions help gather support in a worker dispute with Walgreens. Despite a national schism in the AFL-CIO, local branches still want to work together. JAMIE GERMANO staff photographer