State federation, labor council roles expanded

Top AFL-CIO leaders decided to expand the organizing and political role of state federations and local Central Labor Councils (CLCs). But CLCs that are too small to be effective or ineffective even with new resources will be merged.

The decision, in a March 2 statement from the federation’s Executive Council, meeting in Las Vegas, generally tracks recommendations from a group of state feds and CLCs that met the prior month in the D.C. suburbs.

That group, led by Los Angeles County Federation of Labor chief Miguel Contreras, also called for more accountability for the state feds and CLCs.

The AFL-CIO statement said the state feds and CLCs “must have the capacity to run effective mobilization programs on a continuing basis, not just during national elections.”

To create that, the federation promised to “establish, state by state, integrated strategic planning and budgeting systems” to provide money and people for such mobilization.

It also pledged to “provide mechanisms to insure full support from all affiliates” for state feds and CLCs that meet performance standards and benchmarks. That partially meets a demand from the state fed-CLC group that all local unions be required to support the state feds and CLCs and joint efforts.

But if the state fed or CLC falls down on the job, even after getting people and money to perform it, the national AFL-CIO “must be empowered and required to assume control…to insure coordination and compliance” with organizing and mobilization plans.

And when local CLCs are too small to be effective, the fed will require mergers. “Within states, CLCs should be amalgamated where needed to…have sufficient capacity to carry out these political mobilization plans,” its statement said.

“In some states, there are too many small and ineffective labor councils. The national AFL-CIO shall lead this re-mapping process,” it said.

The federation did not set a number or other requirements for which CLCs would be subject to mergers. It left that issue up to the federation’s State and Local Strategies Committee, chaired by AFT President Ed McElroy. There are 51 state federations and 543 CLCs, according to the AFL-CIO website.

This article was written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.

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