Union unity re-emerges

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090409/OPINION01/904090416/1008/OPINION01/Union+unity+re-emerges

Thursday, April 9, 2009
Commentary
Union unity re-emerges
Harold Meyerson

Four years ago, the American labor movement split asunder. Republicans, who controlled both Congress and the White House, were bent on privatizing Social Security, and liberals were in a slough of despond. Unions that made up about a third of the AFL-CIO's membership broke off to form a rival federation, with the keep-hope-alive name of Change to Win.

This week, the American labor movement proclaimed its intention to come back together -- helped, of course, by the fact that Democrats now control both Congress and the White House and are bent on enacting universal health insurance and, perhaps, some legislation that would make it easier for workers to join unions. After meetings in Maryland this week, the presidents of the two federations and of the nation's 12 largest unions -- including the National Education Association, which heretofore has not belonged to any labor federation -- announced the formation of the National Labor Coordinating Committee, an interim body that could pave the way for labor's reunification by forming a federation with roughly 16 million members.

The committee will be headed by David Bonior, the former Michigan representative and House Democratic whip who was the foremost congressional opponent of both the Reagan administration's support for Nicaraguan contras and the Clinton administration's support for free-trade legislation with China and other repressive regimes. Bonior, who headed former Sen. John Edwards' 2008 presidential campaign, might possibly emerge as the head of the new federation. He is currently president of American Rights at Work, a pro-union advocacy group that has been coordinating the campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act, and he would be an articulate spokesman for a movement that could surely use one.

The union presidents have largely agreed to focus the federation (its name is still up in the air) on the political and lobbying operations at which the AFL-CIO has excelled. They will continue meeting over the next several months to hammer out details -- a timetable that could produce a plan to be ratified at the AFL-CIO's convention in September.

The unification is the result of both dashed hopes and new hopes. The dashed hopes are those of the founders of Change to Win, who argued that by focusing on organizing rather than politics, they could reverse the decline in union membership. That proved not to be the case, which is why all of labor now sees passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would protect workers' right to join unions, as key to their expansion -- or survival.

The governing structure of the federation, however, may look a good deal more like that of Change to Win than the AFL-CIO -- that is, with power vested more in the presidents of its large unions than in the federation's president. (This is not surprising since the plan is being crafted by the presidents of large unions.)

FULL story at link.