Fourth union OKs exit strategy

The Teamsters yesterday became the fourth union to give its president approval to leave the AFL-CIO unless the labor federation makes sweeping changes in the way it organizes new members.

The decision came five days before the start of the federation’s convention in Chicago, where John J. Sweeney is likely to win re-election as president but lose some of the labor movement’s biggest members.

In a resolution passed at their executive committee meeting yesterday in Chicago, leaders of the 1.4 million-member Teamsters union said the AFL-CIO must make dramatic changes in efforts to boost membership because “the status quo is not working.”

Teamsters leaders did not say they would boycott the convention, but the intentions of a group of dissident unions could become clearer today after the AFL-CIO’s executive committee meets.

Like the Teamsters, the Service Employees International Union, which has 1.8 million members, and the United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents 1.4 million workers, also have given their union leaders authority to leave the AFL-CIO.

Unite Here, which represents 440,000 hotel, apparel and restaurant workers, decided in March to give its executive committee authority to leave the federation.

The 800,000-member Laborers International Union joined the dissidents when they formed the rival Change to Win Coalition in June, but union President Terry O’Sullivan has said he won’t leave the AFL-CIO.

The unions threatening to leave the federation disapprove of Mr. Sweeney’s plans for reinvigorating a floundering labor movement and are unable to persuade a majority of unions to embrace their own policies.

“This vote is one more sign of the determination of the Teamsters union and the other unions that are part of the Change to Win Coalition that the AFL-CIO must be restructured in order to survive in the future,” Teamsters President James P. Hoffa said yesterday.

The 520,000-member Carpenters Union, which left the AFL-CIO in 2001, joined the coalition after it formed.

The AFL-CIO, which represents 58 unions, criticized the decision by the Teamsters and urged unions to remain in the federation.

“Now more than ever we need a strong, unified labor movement because we need to build a better future for working families,” AFL-CIO spokeswoman A. Lane Windham said.

The unanimous decision yesterday by the Teamsters executive board further escalates the debate within the federation. The dissidents have pushed for reform and met repeatedly with Mr. Sweeney since a fractious winter meeting in Las Vegas in March, but they have been unable to rally support for their aggressive reform measures.

Mr. Sweeney has said the two sides are not far apart, and he hopes to prevent a split as the AFL-CIO prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary at the convention.

But the dissidents, who represent about one-third of the AFL-CIO’s 13 million members, have consistently replied that Mr. Sweeney’s proposals fall short of the reforms they seek.

The amount of money to spend on organizing new members has been among the most divisive issues. While Mr. Sweeney proposes spending $22.5 million to organize workers, Mr. Hoffa wants 50 percent of dues paid by unions to the AFL-CIO to be returned and used to fund organizing campaigns.

Mr. Sweeney says that would cripple the federation.

Dissident unions also want Mr. Sweeney to step aside, but so far he has no opponent and appears likely to win re-election easily next week.