Two major building trades unions ? the Laborers and Operating Engineers ? are quitting the national Building Trades and forming a new National Construction Alliance with the Bricklayers, Carpenters, Iron Workers and Teamsters, they announced Tuesday.

The decision further splinters the AFL-CIO, which split last summer when several unions left to form the new Change to Win federation.

The decision to leave the national Building & Construction Trades Department, which is part of the national AFL-CIO, was independent of any decision about affiliation with the AFL-CIO as a whole, both Laborers President Terence O'Sullivan and Operating Engineers President Vincent Giblin said.

The Laborers belong to both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win; O'Sullivan said Tuesday the union's departure from the AFL-CIO is "not a question of if, it's a question of when." Giblin said, "The jury is out" on whether the Operating Engineers would remain in the AFL-CIO.

Both said the reason for leaving the national Building Trades and forming the National Construction Alliance was frustration with the Building Trades' failure to address declining membership. In 1973, 40 percent of all U.S. construction workers belonged to unions; today the number has fallen to 13.1 percent.

"We cannot stand idly by, tied to a past that promises only further decline for construction workers, their unions and employers," O'Sullivan said.

"The average rank and file (worker) cannot even identify the issues discussed by national leadership," said Giblin. "It's time to come home."

The National Construction Alliance, which will launch March 1, will represent about 2 million workers, O'Sullivan said. The organization will incorporate four key reforms that were rejected by the national Building Trades, he said:

1. Weighted voting, based on per capita membership, giving unions that have more members more influence in decisionmaking.

2. Changes in the methods for resolving jurisdictional disputes among the trades.

3. Streamlined budget and more effective use of staff.

4. Executive director to head the organization - instead of an elected president - to "take the politics out of running" the alliance.

Giblin said over the past few months they attempted to institute these changes at the national Building Trades, but were "met with reluctance, indecisiveness and outright rejection."

He called the national Building Trades organization "bloated" and said it was far removed from the concerns of average union members who "want to know about job protection. They want to know about the safety rules and regulations in this country."

The current system for settling jurisdictional disputes among unions is archaic, O'Sullivan said. He cited a recent case in which a Los Angeles contractor that employed Laborers lost a pool construction contract when the work was awarded to the Cement Masons union under a 1910 "green book" decision.

The current system is "rooted in a market and economy of the previous century" that no longer applies in the 21st century, O'Sullivan said.

Both presidents left open the possibility that their unions could remain part of Building Trades councils at the state and local level "where it is productive and where it works." However, they also said it was likely the National Construction Alliance would be creating its own local structure.

O'Sullivan said he had talked with about 25 unionized contractor associations and they all welcomed the changes and the creation of a new organization. He also said Change to Win ? the rival organization to the AFL-CIO ? had no role in the Building Trades decision. "There is no association between the National Construction Alliance and Change to Win," he said.

Giblin and O'Sullivan took part in a national conference call Tuesday to announce their disaffiliation from the Building Trades; representatives of the Carpenters and Teamsters, who belong to Change to Win; and the Bricklayers and Iron Workers, who belong to the AFL-CIO, did not participate.