Dissidents say Sweeney’s organizing plan not enough

Alana Roberts

Friday, March 4, 2005 | 11:17 a.m.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney reiterated the labor organization's commitment to spend more money on organizing and politics on the last day of the group's Winter Executive Council meeting Thursday at Bally's Las Vegas.

Sweeney proposes placing an equal financial emphasis on organizing and politics.

But five dissident member unions, led by the Teamsters, believe Sweeney's plan doesn't go far enough, arguing that the AFL-CIO needs to provide a big increase in its financial support of organizing, calling for rebates of membership dues back to member unions.

"We have to do a lot more to build our grass-roots mobilization," Sweeney said at an afternoon press conference. "We have to increase the resources for organizing. We have to do both, not one or the other."

Two plans to strengthen the labor movement by reorganizing the AFL-CIO were voted on by the executive committee on Wednesday. One proposal presented by Sweeney was approved and the other proposed by the Teamsters lost. Sweeney's proposal recommended increasing spending on political mobilization and organizing by 30 percent up to $45 million, AFL-CIO spokeswoman Denise Mitchell, said.

She said now that the Teamsters plan failed it would not go to executive council for a vote. However, Sweeney's plan would be considered by several committees and will go through at least one more executive council meeting before the AFL-CIO's convention in July. For final implementation Sweeney's plan would need be voted on by delegates of the member unions at the convention, although parts of the plan could go into effect before then.

The Teamsters plan would redirect as much as $47.5 million the AFL-CIO gets from member unions back to the unions. The Teamster plan also includes other sweeping changes to make the AFL-CIO more efficient, such as streamlining the AFL-CIO's operations and merging unions. Although the Teamsters plan won't go to a vote before the executive council, its proponents are confident they'll garner more support and will push for a vote by convention delegates.

Sweeney said his supporters in the AFL-CIO agree with the idea of rebates but said that the two sides disagree about important details.

Leaders of the dissident unions have criticized Sweeney's plan as ineffective for the kinds of changes the union movement needs. Andrew Stern, president of SEIU, said during a joint news conference of the five unions Wednesday that there are no other effective proposals besides the one his group is pushing.

"What we want to do is to restore the strength of labor groups," Stern said. "I don't think there's another plan for growth."

Sweeney said both sides agree that the labor movement is under attack, and that it must be strengthened. He said the AFL-CIO plans to make major changes in its organization.

"We will be reviewing our constitution, our governance, our structure, our finances and so many other major areas. I think the executive committee has given us a mandate for big changes in the labor movement to help working families that are really struggling in an anti-union environment."

Sweeney said he will intervene in a separate jurisdictional dispute between the SEIU and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees over the organizing of 49,000 child care providers in Illinois. The child care providers are independent contractors of the state.

Leaders of the SEIU say they have worked for 10 years to organize those workers and in February were able to get an executive order from Gov. Rod Blagojevich allowing the union to organize them. SEIU spokesman Ben Boyd said after the order AFSCME expressed interest in organizing those workers and has made efforts to stop the SEIU from organizing those workers.

"What is at issue is this political gamesmanship they're playing to try to prevent these workers from having a voice at work," Boyd said. "You cannot say politics is the solution and then engage in political maneuvering to stand in the way of 49,000 workers having a voice at work."

Ethan Rome, an AFSCME spokesman, said his union is best suited to organizing child care workers. He called the executive order the SEIU reached with Blagojevich "a backroom deal."

"The debate (shouldn't be) over whether workers should be represented by the union that gets there first," Rome said. "The real deal is which union can best represent these workers."

Sweeney also announced his plan to end the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America's links to several AFL-CIO affiliates including the Building & Construction Trades Department as long as the union is not a member of the AFL-CIO. The union withdrew from the AFL-CIO in 2000.