:: rawblogXport ::

:: Friday, August 13, 2004 ::

Debate on AFL-CIO's Future Is Postponed So Council Can Focus on 2004 Elections LaborTalk By Harry Kelber
The AFL-CIO Executive Council, at its meeting in Chicago on Aug. 9-11, decided to delay any discussion about how to resuscitate a weakened labor movement until after the November elections, but the need for structural and policy changes will continue to be voiced by the New Unity Partnership (NUP) and its articulate spokesman, Andy Stern, president of the 1.6 million-member Service Employees International Union.

Stern's principal argument is that if the AFL-CIO is to regain its former strength, it needs to restructure its current 60 international union affiliates into some 15 industrial sector unions and, with added resources, take on all the companies within that sector.

While there may be merit in Stern's approach, he does not say how this transformation will be achieved and how long the process will take, even in the unlikely assumption that the other 55 unions will acquiesce to his plan. Nor is their any guarantee that the suggested structural changes and strategic plans are the magic bullets that will produce the desired results.

Many union leaders are resentful at what they consider "aggressive, arrogant behavior" by the NUP, which consists of leaders of only five unions: President Bruce Raynor and Secretary-Treasurer John Wilhelm, both of UNITE HERE; President Terence O'Sullivan of the Laborers; President Douglas McCarron of the disaffiliated Carpenters, and Stern.

posted 6:13 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::

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