Thursday, July 21, 2005 | 11:04 a.m.
Although John Wilhelm says he won't challenge John Sweeney for the presidency of the AFL-CIO, he levels strong criticism at labor's top official.
Wilhelm, hospitality president of UNITE HERE, parent of Culinary Union Local 226, called the AFL-CIO a bureaucratic organization that is out of touch with the plight of workers.
"I think it's simple, the problem with the AFL-CIO is the AFL-CIO has become a beltway place that has very little connection to where the economic and political action is in this country," Wilhelm said. "Which is out in the 50 states."
He said he doesn't expect delegates to agree to effective changes in the AFL-CIO's structure and operations at the AFL-CIO's convention in Chicago,
The convention starts Monday.
Wilhelm said he isn't considering a run for president of the AFL-CIO against incumbent Sweeney at the convention, because the unions in the federation that represent a majority of union workers don't support the kinds of changes he thinks will be effective in strengthening the labor movement.
"I have always said the question of reform comes first and the question of leadership comes second," Wilhelm said. "If unions representing a majority of union members favored reform then I would run, but that's not the case. Unions that represent 60 percent of union members believe there is no need for change."
Wilhelm said he doesn't expect the AFL-CIO leadership to agree to changes that will be effective enough to strengthen the labor movement.
"Unions representing a majority of AFL-CIO union members have made clear they support the status quo in the AFL-CIO," Wilhelm said. "I don't expect any change at the AFL-CIO convention."
Wilhelm led the Culinary Union's negotiations with Las Vegas casinos during the 1980s and '90s. He now represents one of six unions that have formed a coalition of unions that have sought organizational changes within the AFL-CIO. That group includes UNITE HERE, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, the Service Employees International Union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Laborers' International Union of North America and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America.
The dissident unions say they are seeking more of an investment in organizing and more of a bipartisan approach to politics, in the wake of declining union membership. That approach seeks to align the union with politicians who are worker-friendly regardless of their political party affiliation.
Although the Change to Win Coalition doesn't represent a majority of the union members in the AFL-CIO, Wilhelm said the group's six unions represent about 6 million union members -- or about 40 percent of the total number of unionized workers in the country. He said the coalition plans to meet at its founding convention in the fall, with a place and specific time yet to be determined.
"We have a very strong group of unions," Wilhelm said. "We're going to set up a permanent organization. We're going to welcome unions that stay in the AFL-CIO or unions that leave the AFL-CIO."
He said if effective changes aren't devised at the AFL-CIO convention his union won't continue to fight other unions that agree with the AFL-CIO's leadership. UNITE HERE hasn't made any moves to withdraw from the AFL-CIO -- but he said it's an option.
"We're not going to engage in a prolonged fight with other unions," Wilhelm said. "If some unions believe that the status quo is acceptable they should go their own way. We're going to establish an alternative organization. Whether or not we stay within the AFL-CIO, we're going to do the things we think need to be done to improve things for American workers."
Wilhelm also said the reason he resigned his post as chair of the AFL-CIO Immigration Committee earlier this week is because the AFL-CIO, led by Sweeney, has taken over the committee. He said the committee hasn't met, but that the AFL-CIO and its staff have gone ahead and made policies without consulting the committee.
Wilhelm said the AFL-CIO's member unions had previously been able to come to an agreement that immigrant workers are important to the nation's economy and that the fate of immigrant workers is tied into the fate of all workers. He said because the Immigration Committee has had no input in the AFL-CIO's immigration policies that the unions no longer have a consensus on the issue of immigration.
"I think it's because the AFL-CIO has become a beltway bureaucracy that is disconnected from the realities that go on in Nevada and California and New York and the rest of the world," Wilhelm said. "Avoiding the bureaucratic approach was the reason why it (the Immigration Committee) was successful."
But Sweeney said in a letter addressed to Wilhelm that the UNITE HERE official is misrepresenting the work of the committee. Sweeney said UNITE HERE's positions on immigration -- including its support for a guest-worker program -- made the work of supporting immigration efforts more difficult. He also noted that UNITE HERE has dissented from most unions on immigration legislation proposed by U.S. Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
"Two of the most active and vocal unions on the Immigration Committee LIUNA (Laborers) and UFCW, strongly disagreed with the UNITE HERE position of abandoning prevailing wage standards and allowing for a significantly expanded temporary worker program without effective labor protections," Sweeney wrote. "The Teamsters also objected to the UNITE HERE-backed construct of a guest worker program."
Sweeney said only at Kennedy's request did he step in to ensure discussions on that topic continued.
Wilhelm denied that disputes over specific immigration issues led him to quit the committee.
"The AFL-CIO's bureaucracy has taken over the committee and rendered it irrelevant," Wilhelm said. "It's symptomatic of what's wrong with the AFL-CIO."
He acknowledged that immigration issues are complicated and controversial and that the unions did disagree on specific issues, but said he welcomes differing opinions.
Wilhelm said that the way unions operate in Las Vegas is the way the rest of the labor movement should operate. Unions in Las Vegas, particularly the Culinary Union, have been successful at organizing because they work well with companies that are willing to cooperate with them and fight those companies that won't.
The Teamsters Union's general executive board made a move to distance itself from the AFL-CIO Wednesday. The group gave its President James Hoffa, the ability to withdraw from the umbrella organization if he chooses to do so. The Teamsters general executive board also gave the official go-ahead to affiliate with the Change to Win Coalition.
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