The AFL-CIO Split

It appears as though the more active unions of the AFL-CIO are thinking of splitting and leaving the 50 year old trade federation. The corporate press is having a tizzy about how a split trade union world might mean less subservience to the Democratic party. Franky the democrats have bragged about how little they need to offer labor to keep them in their pocket, and the AFL-CIO leadership has been a dieing ‘labor services’ agency for decades. If the AFL-CIO actually organized people then i would be sad to see it go, but i’m not.

The new coalition has been formed around the SEIU and is called the Change to Win Coalition. They aren’t radicals by any means, but they do at least believe unions should be organizing workers, and they want to build coalitions outside the traditional conceptions of unions. In short, they are activily trying to grow instead of slowly fading away like the rest of the AFL-CIO.

There are a few people blogging from the convention. First is Andy Stern himself, the leader of the SEUI on the unite to win blog and the associated blogging site of seiu supporters purple ocean. Then there is also working life who is blogging as a delegate.

Indymedia Chicago has pretty good coverage and i found a good interview critiquing the whole debate from a leftist perspective on znet.

To me the SEIU still has some fundamental flaws. They took over my sister’s workplace, she was shifted from being a member of the ILWU to SEIU last year. The lack of democracy, respect for the workers opinons, and general apprication for the reality of today’s working environments is depressing. If unions are going to thrive they have to be struggling with workers not working out back room deals which often aren’t in the interest of their members. Even their organizers aren’t respected and i know a number of people who have been used and burned out by these new ‘reform’ unions. The need for organizing hasn’t gone away, some radicals look to reviving the IWW, while others look to things like workers centers which organize outside the legal union framework.