By SHERRY HALBROOK
As a local affiliate of two international unions on opposite sides of the split at the AFL-CIO’s 50th Convention August 1-4 in Chicago, PEF is emblematic of the fundamental need for unity in the labor movement.
“The fact that one of our international affiliates — the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) — disaffiliated from the national AFL-CIO will have no immediate effect on PEF or its members,” said PEF President Roger Benson.
“PEF will continue to be a leader in the community of organized labor. We will maintain our relationship with the NYS AFL-CIO, of which I am a vice president and member of the Executive Board. And we will maintain our affiliation with the national AFL-CIO through our other international affiliate — the American Federation of Teachers,” Benson said.
“Furthermore, the disaffiliation from the national AFL-CIO by SEIU should result in no changes in the terms and conditions of employment for PEF members or PEF staff.”
Not only will Benson continue in his leadership role on the state AFL-CIO, PEF Vice President Joe Fox will continue to serve as president of the Capital District Area Labor Federation a regional body of the state AFL-CIO.
Although PEF’s place in the labor movement and its members’ rights and benefits will not be diminished, they are in a unique position to witness this historic moment and the powerful forces for change it portends for American labor.
Broader issues
As PEF Executive Board Member Mike Keenan, who was a PEF delegate to the AFL-CIO Convention in Chicago, reported to his fellow PEF board members a few days later in Albany: “We should not be asking what this means for PEF, but the bigger and more important question of what does this mean to the labor movement?”
Keenan, who is also president of the Troy Area Labor Council and a longtime labor activist, said he expects the split to create at least some short-term chaos within and among unions.
While PEF’s delegates to the AFL-CIO Convention — Fox, Keenan, and Region 5 Coordinator Mary Twitchell and alternate Herb Hennings — all worked for unity, they also recognized the important issues being raised by SEIU and the other international unions that ultimately broke away.
Among those issues was who should lead the AFL-CIO and whether it should stop funneling so much of its money and other resources into political campaigns and legislative efforts and refocus them on organizing new workers.
Calling for these major shifts in national strategy, priorities and the internal AFL-CIO power structure, SEIU President Andy Stern and International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) President James Hoffa were joined by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), the United Farm Workers (UFW), the United Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (UNITE-HERE), the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) and others.
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In the end, the AFL-CIO’s internal power structure held fast and the dissidents had to accept being outvoted or leave. For the most part, they chose to leave and take their considerable dues and resources with them to form Change to Win. This new group wants international unions representing related job groups to merge and focus on organizing large groups of workers within that industry or field, rather than adding small groups of workers in many unrelated occupations and industries.
Although, they opposed disaffiliation with the AFL-CIO, both Benson and Fox praised Stern for spurring debate and soul-searching within organized labor about fundamental strategies and priorities.
“No one can say Andy isn’t a visionary and a hard worker,” Benson said.
Keenan said he tried to persuade Stern and SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Berger to remain within the AFL-CIO and keep fighting for their viewpoints, but they felt 10 years of advocacy were enough; it was time to outflank their opposition.
“To say I was disappointed is an understatement,” Fox said. “So much going on, so many egos. I wish they got past that, but they didn’t.”
Solidarity forever
While the intensity of feelings at top levels on both sides of the debate became too personal just before the convention to bridge the gap, pressure for continued solidarity from the grassroots is more intense than ever now and eventually may prevail.
Immediately after the split, hard lines were drawn to exclude the disaffiliated unions from the state federations, ALFs and central labor councils.
Less than two weeks after the convention, however, the AFL-CIO announced it might allow continued state and regional participation by the locals of disaffiliated international unions if they paid an additional fee.
Keenan, who will retire after the PEF convention in September, said he sees the real hope for the future of labor in neither the AFL-CIO nor Change to Win, but in the natural unity and sense of common purpose in the central labor councils and
ALFs.
Nevertheless, the divisiveness in Chicago has left a bitter taste of disappointment.
“I’ve had more fun at funerals,” Keenan said.
The
Communicator September 05
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