Columnist Jeff German: State holds breath as national labor splits

Friday, July 22, 2005 | 4:56 a.m.

Jeff German's column appears Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays in the Sun. Reach him at german@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4067.

WEEKEND EDITION

July 23-24, 2005

The American labor movement has remained united for 50 years under the auspices of the AFL-CIO.

But as the national federation, with its 13 million members, heads into its 50th anniversary convention in Chicago Monday, organized labor is poised for a nasty breakup.

To John Wilhelm, co-president of UNITE HERE, the merged laundry and culinary workers union, the split is something that has to be done to reverse labor's declining numbers.

"The labor movement is no different than any other institution in the 21st Century," says Wilhelm, who turned casino workers in Las Vegas into a powerful political force. "Nobody can operate like they operated 50 years ago. We've got to change."

For Wilhelm's UNITE HERE and the four other progressive unions within the AFL-CIO that formed a separate coalition, the change is about connecting with the workers and stepping up organizing efforts to regain labor's clout.

This is a concept, Wilhelm says, that AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, with his "Beltway bureaucracy" mentality, has been slow to grasp.

"Anybody who thinks the labor movement can't rebuild itself and survive should look at Las Vegas," Wilhelm says.

Las Vegas, with its growing tourism and construction industry workforce, has been one of labor's shining stars in recent years. Unions have made great strides in organizing those workers here.

Wilhelm says the formula for success -- which has turned UNITE HERE's local Culinary Union into the largest and most influential union in the state -- is pretty simple.

"We've worked very hard to form partnerships with employers interested in cooperation," he explains. "And we've been prepared to fight employers who don't want to cooperate."

Together, the founding members of UNITE HERE's coalition -- which also includes the Teamsters, Service Employees, Laborers and Food and Commercial Workers -- make up about 35 percent of the AFL-CIO's members.

But these unions, though they're among the largest and most dynamic within the AFL-CIO, don't represent the views of the majority of the federation's membership.

Wilhelm and company were unable to persuade enough of their peers to dump Sweeney at this week's convention, so it now appears as if Sweeney, who's been at the helm since 1995, is assured of being re-elected.

And Wilhelm's group, temporarily dubbed the "Change to Win Coalition," is ready to hit the road and move in its own direction. It already has picked up two new members, the Carpenters Union and the United Farm Workers.

Change to Win plans a founding convention in the fall to map out a strategy for the rebuilding efforts. Some of the dissident unions may leave the AFL-CIO and some may belong to both organizations.

However it all plays out, the split is likely to have a profound impact on the politically active Nevada labor movement, which remains united despite the national discord.

Danny Thompson, executive director of the 165,000-member Nevada AFL-CIO, says the five original members of the coalition make up about 80 percent of his membership.

"There's not a single union here that wants the state organization to go away," says Thompson, a delegate to the Chicago convention. "We're going to make sure the day after the convention that this organization stays intact."

Thompson doesn't know how that will be accomplished, but it could mean creating a new organization outside the umbrella of the AFL-CIO.

Wilhelm says he expects Thompson will remain labor's top dog in the state no matter what happens in Chicago this week.

Predicting the future of organized labor in America, however, is a different story.