Abstract

Labor Splits Open

The article presents an editorial on the state of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). After the 1952 election, union leaders were worried. Republicans were in power. Labor rights had been weakened. Southern organizing had failed. Unions were raiding one another. There were bitter personal and federation rivalries. One big union threatened to disaffiliate from its federation. In 1955, hoping to strengthen the labor movement, the AFL-CIO was formed. Fast-forward fifty years. There are echoes of those old issues, but now the AFL-CIO is on the brink of a major breakup. Partly that is because the original merger created a weak federation, not a strong, unified labor movement. In recent months the Service Employees (SEIU) and like-minded unions have ratcheted up the pressure by making specific proposals to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney. The debate has been muddied by personality issues. Union presidents representing 63 percent of federation members back Sweeney, partly because they like him (or dislike SEIU president Andy Stern's style), but there are divisions within each camp. Workers would gain from a unified labor movement that resolved many of the AFL-CIO's inherited weaknesses, at a minimum demanding that unions implement some clear strategic approach to grow and gain power for workers. Unions need both to better coordinate and to act as a movement beyond narrow interests, such as by launching new unions in unorganized sectors.