Union leader Wilhelm resigns from AFL-CIO committee

Alana Roberts

Tuesday, July 19, 2005 | 11:14 a.m.

John Wilhelm, president of the parent of the Culinary Union Local 226, and a champion for immigrant workers, has resigned from the AFL-CIO's Immigration Committee saying the labor federation has cut the committee out of the group's decisions on immigration policies.

Wilhelm said this morning that John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, appears threatened by the committee, which is made up of a dozen or so ranking union leaders across the country. He also said Sweeney has tried to circumvent the work done by the committee in recent months.

"The bureaucracy in Washington has always felt uncomfortable with the fact that the immigration committee was a real committee of real union leaders," Wilhelm said.

He said he was disappointed because the AFL-CIO had been working together under the auspices of the committee to grapple with what he called a "tough issue."

In the letter dated for Monday, Wilhelm told Sweeney that since 1999 the committee has been able to get unions with varying views on immigrant workers to come to a consensus in support of immigrant workers. He said this year the AFL-CIO staff has taken control of the federation's immigration work, and that the federation has sent out two memos regarding the AFL-CIO's position on immigration without consulting with the Immigration Committee.

The AFL-CIO convention, set to begin next Monday in Chicago, is expected to be the place where labor leaders will map out the course of the future of the labor movement.

Wilhelm reportedly has considered running against Sweeney for presidency of the AFL-CIO at the convention, but Wilhelm has said the group plans to wait and see what will take place at two meetings of AFL-CIO leaders set for later this week.

Wilhelm also said a resolution authored by Sweeney doesn't mention immigration.

Wilhelm's resignation from the Immigration Committee is evidence of the growing dissent amongst six dissident unions who have united themselves under the Change to Win Coalition and other union leaders within the AFL-CIO including Sweeney. Those dissident unions feel the structure and policies of the AFL-CIO are outmoded and ineffective and because of that the labor movement is not getting stronger.

Amanda Cooper, spokeswoman for UNITE HERE, said Wilhelm's resignation is unrelated to the larger disputes labor leaders have about the future direction of the labor movement. However, she said Wilhelm resigned from the Immigration Committee because the federation has acted undemocratically by not consulting the committee in its immigration policy decisions.

"The resignation is not a portent of what's coming," Cooper said. "It is emblematic of the undemocratic and uninclusive (stance) the federation has taken with dealing with any of its member unions in terms of trying to control the debate instead of trying to inspire the debate."

Kent Wong, director of the University of California, Los Angeles Center for Labor Research and Education, said the withdrawal is an example of pre-convention maneuvering.

"This will be a very contentious convention," Wong said. "They have aligned themselves with the group of dissident unions that are threatening to pull out of the AFL-CIO. It would not surprise me that this is a move in that direction."

Sun columnist Jeff German contributed to this story.