There were many top labor stories during 2005, but the split in the AFL-CIO overrode them all. It had multiple ramifications.
The Service Employees -- then the federation's largest union -- the Teamsters, the United Food and Commercial Workers and UNITE HERE all left the labor federation between July and September to form the new Change to Win federation.
The Laborers and Farm Workers also joined Change to Win, but as of the end of the year still belonged to both federations. The Carpenters, who left the AFL-CIO four years earlier -- and whom it had tried to get back -- also joined Change to Win.
The new federation, with more than 5 million members, made organizing its top, if not its sole, priority. It dedicated three-fourths of its $16 million budget to its organizing institute, pledged to institute joint organizing drives, and tried new techniques for organizing workers in the anti-union South after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, among other things.
The AFL-CIO, which had intended its convention in Chicago to be a celebration of its 50th anniversary, found itself with 9 million members -- and a lot of problems.
Its budget shrunk, as did its staff, with about one-fourth of its workers leaving. It reorganized its structure, combining field mobilization and politics, among other things, and its priorities. It turned more towards political action and mass marches.
Its state and local affiliates, often shorn of 40 percent of their budgets and activists when the Change to Win unions left, scrambled for solutions. They were later aided by an agreement the two federations worked out for "Solidarity Charters" to let CTW unions and activists stay in state feds and central labor councils.
The federation's new priorities debuted in December. It mobilized more than 60,000 people nationwide for events leading up to International Human Rights Day, Dec. 10, emphasizing that the right to organize is a human right, guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
It vowed to continue that drive until the Employee Free Choice Act passed. That measure, which faces opposition from the leaders of the GOP-run Congress, would level the playing field between unions and management. It has 41 Senate backers and 207 House backers, including a handful of Republicans.
At the end of the year, the AFL-CIO also announced a massive political education drive, initially starting in 10 swing states, or states with U.S. Senate races next year, to educate voters about lawmakers' stands on 15 key workers' issues, listed in a report card. They ranged from increasing the minimum wage, to comp time for overtime, to the abuses by Wal-Mart.
Besides the split, some of the other top stories of 2005 were:
* Airline difficulties. Workers at Northwest and Delta saw their carriers file for bankruptcy, which produced pay cuts, benefits cuts and threats their contracts would be nullified. Workers at United battled in bankruptcy court to preserve what remained of their pay and benefits -- their pensions had been dumped on the federal government -- while that airline works its way through bankruptcy.
Workers at previously bankrupt US Airways emerged in better shape, however: That carrier merged with healthy America West and a joint CWA-Teamsters alliance negotiated a new contract for the ground personnel at the new airline, which will bring both sets of workers up to par wages with each other within a few years.
* Car difficulties. Delphi Auto Parts, GM's parts supplier, also filed for bankruptcy and threatened the UAW and five other Delphi unions with the firing of 18,000 workers and wage cuts of 60 percent for the rest. Delphi also wants to give $531 million in bonuses to 600 top executives, but needs court OK for that.
Meanwhile, UAW, faced with financial problems at GM and looming difficulties at Ford, negotiated agreements with the two carmakers which, for the first time, would have retirees pay small monthly deductibles for their health care. To preserve health care for the retirees, GM's 118,000 and Ford's 87,000 active workers both agreed to forgo scheduled cost of living increases and hourly pay raises next year.
* Minimum wage. By virtual party-line votes, the GOP-run Senate twice defeated a labor-backed proposal to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25. The last hike was in 1997. It also defeated a GOP alternative, which coupled a $1.10 hourly raise with abolition of the minimum wage for small businesses and substituting comp time for overtime. Labor spent much of the year legislatively battling such anti-worker proposals, many of them halted by filibusters or threats of filibusters in the Senate.
* Who's a worker? GOP President George W. Bush stripped 125,000 workers at the Department of Homeland Security of union protections, and was trying do that to 700,000 civilian workers at the Defense Department. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson called Bush the nation's "No. 1 union buster," and a coalition of DOD workers unions temporarily halted his scheme in federal court. Meanwhile, the Bush-named majority at the National Labor Relations Board stripped groups of workers, notably college teaching assistants, of labor law protection.
The story in 2006 may be more of the same. Politics will take center stage next year, again, at the AFL-CIO, and organizing will take it at CTW.
The AFL-CIO already launched a massive political education campaign with a scorecard of lawmakers' votes on 15 key issues. Several state federations and individual unions started endorsing U.S. Senate and gubernatorial candidates.
Both federations announced opposition to Bush's nomination of federal appellate judge Samuel Alito to replace retiring Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a key swing vote on the bench. Confirmation hearings on Alito open Jan. 9.
Labor will also battle both for the minimum wage increase, against further anti-worker trade deals, and against Bush plans to cut programs that benefit the middle class and the poor in favor of more tax cuts for the rich.
Change to Win's seven unions will build on SEIU's recent success organizing 5,300 janitors in Houston, aided by the Teamsters and solidarity nationwide. Their goal is to have their unions -- nationals, statewide organizations and locals -- spend $750 million on organizing, targeting workers whose jobs cannot be moved or outsourced.
One of the seven, UNITE HERE, plans for nationwide negotiations with the nation's big hotel chains. Hotel contracts in major convention cities expire in 2006. UNITE HERE arranged that, so a simultaneous strike threat would force employers to bargain in good faith, by threatening to shut convention hotels nationwide.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
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There were many top labor stories during 2005, but the split in the AFL-CIO overrode them all. It had multiple ramifications.
The Service Employees — then the federation’s largest union — the Teamsters, the United Food and Commercial Workers and UNITE HERE all left the labor federation between July and September to form the new Change to Win federation.
The Laborers and Farm Workers also joined Change to Win, but as of the end of the year still belonged to both federations. The Carpenters, who left the AFL-CIO four years earlier — and whom it had tried to get back — also joined Change to Win.
The new federation, with more than 5 million members, made organizing its top, if not its sole, priority. It dedicated three-fourths of its $16 million budget to its organizing institute, pledged to institute joint organizing drives, and tried new techniques for organizing workers in the anti-union South after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, among other things.
The AFL-CIO, which had intended its convention in Chicago to be a celebration of its 50th anniversary, found itself with 9 million members — and a lot of problems.
Its budget shrunk, as did its staff, with about one-fourth of its workers leaving. It reorganized its structure, combining field mobilization and politics, among other things, and its priorities. It turned more towards political action and mass marches.
Its state and local affiliates, often shorn of 40 percent of their budgets and activists when the Change to Win unions left, scrambled for solutions. They were later aided by an agreement the two federations worked out for “Solidarity Charters” to let CTW unions and activists stay in state feds and central labor councils.
The federation’s new priorities debuted in December. It mobilized more than 60,000 people nationwide for events leading up to International Human Rights Day, Dec. 10, emphasizing that the right to organize is a human right, guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
It vowed to continue that drive until the Employee Free Choice Act passed. That measure, which faces opposition from the leaders of the GOP-run Congress, would level the playing field between unions and management. It has 41 Senate backers and 207 House backers, including a handful of Republicans.
At the end of the year, the AFL-CIO also announced a massive political education drive, initially starting in 10 swing states, or states with U.S. Senate races next year, to educate voters about lawmakers’ stands on 15 key workers’ issues, listed in a report card. They ranged from increasing the minimum wage, to comp time for overtime, to the abuses by Wal-Mart.
Besides the split, some of the other top stories of 2005 were:
* Airline difficulties. Workers at Northwest and Delta saw their carriers file for bankruptcy, which produced pay cuts, benefits cuts and threats their contracts would be nullified. Workers at United battled in bankruptcy court to preserve what remained of their pay and benefits — their pensions had been dumped on the federal government — while that airline works its way through bankruptcy.
Workers at previously bankrupt US Airways emerged in better shape, however: That carrier merged with healthy America West and a joint CWA-Teamsters alliance negotiated a new contract for the ground personnel at the new airline, which will bring both sets of workers up to par wages with each other within a few years.
* Car difficulties. Delphi Auto Parts, GM’s parts supplier, also filed for bankruptcy and threatened the UAW and five other Delphi unions with the firing of 18,000 workers and wage cuts of 60 percent for the rest. Delphi also wants to give $531 million in bonuses to 600 top executives, but needs court OK for that.
Meanwhile, UAW, faced with financial problems at GM and looming difficulties at Ford, negotiated agreements with the two carmakers which, for the first time, would have retirees pay small monthly deductibles for their health care. To preserve health care for the retirees, GM’s 118,000 and Ford’s 87,000 active workers both agreed to forgo scheduled cost of living increases and hourly pay raises next year.
* Minimum wage. By virtual party-line votes, the GOP-run Senate twice defeated a labor-backed proposal to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25. The last hike was in 1997. It also defeated a GOP alternative, which coupled a $1.10 hourly raise with abolition of the minimum wage for small businesses and substituting comp time for overtime. Labor spent much of the year legislatively battling such anti-worker proposals, many of them halted by filibusters or threats of filibusters in the Senate.
* Who’s a worker? GOP President George W. Bush stripped 125,000 workers at the Department of Homeland Security of union protections, and was trying do that to 700,000 civilian workers at the Defense Department. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson called Bush the nation’s “No. 1 union buster,” and a coalition of DOD workers unions temporarily halted his scheme in federal court. Meanwhile, the Bush-named majority at the National Labor Relations Board stripped groups of workers, notably college teaching assistants, of labor law protection.
The story in 2006 may be more of the same. Politics will take center stage next year, again, at the AFL-CIO, and organizing will take it at CTW.
The AFL-CIO already launched a massive political education campaign with a scorecard of lawmakers’ votes on 15 key issues. Several state federations and individual unions started endorsing U.S. Senate and gubernatorial candidates.
Both federations announced opposition to Bush’s nomination of federal appellate judge Samuel Alito to replace retiring Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a key swing vote on the bench. Confirmation hearings on Alito open Jan. 9.
Labor will also battle both for the minimum wage increase, against further anti-worker trade deals, and against Bush plans to cut programs that benefit the middle class and the poor in favor of more tax cuts for the rich.
Change to Win’s seven unions will build on SEIU’s recent success organizing 5,300 janitors in Houston, aided by the Teamsters and solidarity nationwide. Their goal is to have their unions — nationals, statewide organizations and locals — spend $750 million on organizing, targeting workers whose jobs cannot be moved or outsourced.
One of the seven, UNITE HERE, plans for nationwide negotiations with the nation’s big hotel chains. Hotel contracts in major convention cities expire in 2006. UNITE HERE arranged that, so a simultaneous strike threat would force employers to bargain in good faith, by threatening to shut convention hotels nationwide.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.