NY Times: Largest Union Issues Call for Major Changes

[Quetzal]

Largest Union Issues Call for Major Changes

As the nation's union leaders gather today in Washington the labor movement is in turmoil, with the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s largest union hinting that it might pull out of the labor federation and some labor leaders saying that John J. Sweeney may face a challenge for its presidency.

In a sign of the jockeying and soul-searching, Andrew L. Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s largest union, called yesterday in a letter for far-reaching changes in labor designed to increase its membership, proposing a $25-million-a-year campaign to unionize Wal-Mart and a near doubling in the amount spent annually on organizing.

The meeting comes as long-simmering differences in the A.F.L.-C.I.O. have been intensified by President Bush's re-election, with many union leaders fearing retaliation because organized labor spent more than $150 million to try to defeat him.

"The labor movement was really shaken by the election and they're also badly divided," said Kate Bronfenbrenner, a labor relations professor at Cornell University.

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Largest Union Issues Call for Major Changes

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. kick

[BayCityProgressive]

2. This is not good for Democrats

Unions have become less and less effective..therefore are less appealing to workers and less union members now support Democrats. Also, Democrats have moved away from supporting Labor because it is so unorganized and weak. Our base is falling apart. We need to rebuild our core, the American left has become all but irrelevant.

[oscar111]

3. SEIU donate to bush? rumor? was here on DU, but so are freepers

is it true?

seems highly unlikely.

i suspect a troll.

[Julien Sorel]

4. I think this Stern guy makes some good points.

The union movement has been in slow decline for decades now, and needs to start looking at different ways to rejuvinate itself.

[Robert Oak]

5. at least they are doing a shake up

They dumped so much money on democrats...

yet a Democrat signed NAFTA, which hurt them badly.

I hope they focus on organizing workers period and working out the bugs
with unionization, stagnation, infighting and inconsistency.

Just forget trying to get someone elected per say, focus in on organizing the workers and then gain power so an offical seeks them out.

I think they are our best hope frankly in terms of keeping workers rights.

This year they were all over the place trying to get Kerry elected.

And they have some great studies out there, some very good information...

seriously, forget the democrats and just think "middle class" and having them degrade hurts us all terribly.

[oscar111]

6. R. Oak, i disagree totally

unions neglect politics, and the RW wins, eventually banning all unions.

On the road to a ban, the rw will make it harded to form unions, easier to get rid of them, and a thousand little harms.

The universe is multicausal, not monocausal. Unions must grow on several fronts at once.