Columnist Jeff German: Labor looks for new direction

Friday, March 4, 2005 | 11:11 a.m.

It was almost surreal -- a turning point in the American labor movement unfolding, of all places, inside an Italian restaurant at a crowded casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

But there they were Wednesday, within earshot of ringing slot machines, the leaders of some of the nation's largest unions telling reporters that organized labor has lost its clout and must regain its strength in numbers to survive.

They sat around a linen-covered table inside Bally's al Dente restaurant (the home of food servers who belong to the local Culinary Union) with stern looks on their faces as they talked about the need to step up organizing within labor's largest federation, the AFL-CIO.

Never in the 50-year history of the AFL-CIO have its members been so divided.

The news conference took place after the AFL-CIO's executive committee, led by President John Sweeney, voted down a Teamsters proposal to steer 50 percent (about $45 million) of the contributions unions pay to the federation to an organizing fund.

The executive committee instead approved setting aside $15 million for organizing and spending $45 million to shore up labor's political initiatives.

"This debate is not about dollars," Teamsters President James P. Hoffa told reporters. "It is about a vision of the future of the American labor movement."

Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, the largest member of the AFL-CIO, recalled how labor had its greatest impact when one-third of the work force belonged to a union. Today only 12.5 percent of American workers are union members.

"We want to restore the strength of workers in America," Stern said.

Together, the leaders of the five unions, which represent 5 million workers, roughly 40 percent of the AFL-CIO's membership, said they were prepared to fight for more organizing resources all the way to the federation's annual convention in Chicago in July.

Sweeney, meanwhile, told reporters Thursday that he was convinced the right course for change was to bolster both organizing and political efforts.

The debate, however, will continue within the AFL-CIO in the weeks before the convention, Sweeney acknowledged.

He said he would try to bring the five unions back into the fold. But if he couldn't make that happen by July, he added, "I'm going to do my damndest to prevail."

Playing a pivotal role in the debate will be John Wilhelm, co-president of UNITE HERE, the merged Culinary and laundry workers union, which is regarded as one of the most dynamic organizing-minded unions in the country.

Wilhelm, who attended Wednesday's news conference, is credited with turning the local Culinary Union into a political force in Nevada through a shrewd organizing campaign on the Strip that more than doubled the union's membership.

He's the man the five unions are likely to support for president if they are unable to win the dramatic change they believe the AFL-CIO needs.

Wilhelm, a Yale graduate, sounded like a candidate in an interview with me Thursday.

"The question here is whether the status quo is going to prevail in the labor movement or whether we're going to face up to the reality that the labor movement is dying," he said.

It's not dying, however, in Wilhelm's favorite city of Las Vegas, as his favorite local has demonstrated.

Las Vegas, it turns out, is giving organized labor hope that change can indeed happen.

So, as strange as it may have looked, it was fitting that the unions chose the Strip as the place to make history this week.