When three unions amputated themselves from the
AFL-CIO at the federation’s 50th-anniversary convention in Chicago
last week, gloom-and-doomers chalked it up as another sign that the
American labor movement has all but clocked out.
Indeed, the impact of the breakup of the largest
labor organization in the nation, but arguably also the most politically
influential, will be devastating.
Nationwide, union membership is at an all-time low.
Now gone, the Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers, and Service
Employees International Union accounted for roughly a third of the
AFL-CIO’s 13 million members, and their disaffiliation represents a
$28 million hit to the organization’s $120 million budget.
In Illinois, the SEIU alone accounted for almost
one-fifth of the state’s 1 million union members. So if the national
labor movement sneezes, expectations are that Illinois, as one of the
nation’s most unionized states, will catch one hell of a cold.
“There’s strength in numbers, and the
more unions stick together, the more clout they’re going to have to
take to the political marketplace, so to speak,” says Christopher
Mooney, political-studies professor at the University of Illinois at
Springfield.
Organized labor, Mooney adds, is really important for
the Illinois Democratic Party, and union support likely sealed the
Democratic nomination — and subsequent election — of Rod
Blagojevich in the 2002 gubernatorial race.
Mooney says that problems may arise in primary
elections in which competing unions support different candidates, but he
quickly adds that that possibility existed even before the breakup.
Although evidence of a national labor split’s
impact on Illinois remains to be seen, state labor leaders do not foresee
any change in the labor landscape.
“We don’t have a problem in Illinois;
it’s a national problem,” says Margaret Blackshere, president
of the Illinois AFL-CIO. “It’s the leaders at the national
level. At the grassroots level, I’m hopeful that the breakup will not
affect the labor movement at all.”
Tom Balanoff, president of the Illinois council of
the SEIU, the state’s largest union, agrees and says that in spite of
what’s going on in Washington, D.C., he and Blackshere, along with
Dennis Gannon, who heads the Chicago Federation of Labor, enjoy healthy
working relationships.
“I hope it creates healthy competition. Now is
the time we all have to work together,” Balanoff says.
Competition can also lead to conflict. Now fractured,
the AFL-CIO can no longer settle disputes between their unions and
disaffiliated as they did this past March, when they ruled in favor of the
SEIU and ended the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal
Employees’ bid for 50,000 child-care workers in Illinois.
Ronn Morehead, president of the Bloomington &
Normal Trades & Labor Assembly, says he anticipates no problems in his
organization and believes that the breakup of the AFL-CIO will reinvigorate
the labor movement.
“It makes those on the local level more active;
it pushes us forward, not back. You’ll see more activity from an
organizing standpoint, including focusing on all individuals who want to
become organized.”
Mike Shampine, president of the Decatur Trades &
Labor Assembly, agrees: “Many of these people are our friends.
We’ve worked together for years. There’s a different climate in
Washington.”
Besides, Shampine asks, “what can’t you
do outside the AFL-CIO umbrella that you can’t do underneath
it?”
Nothing, says Balanoff, who also notes that there are
no fewer union members now that the AFL-CIO has lost membership than there
were when the group was intact. Now, he says, is the time for all unions to
work together toward common goals.
Last week, as labor groups were fighting with each
other, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, which, American labor
groups fear, will send jobs overseas, slipped through the U.S. House of
Representatives, passing by just two votes — a missed opportunity for
labor, Balanoff says — and was signed into law by President Bush on
Tuesday.
On the state level, leaders such as Blackshere remain
optimistic about labor’s outlook.
“The future of the labor movement is certainly
brighter [in Illinois] than the national scene,” she says. “I
know that here in Illinois, leaders of the UFCW are not angry at the
AFL-CIO; neither are the Teamsters and neither is the SEIU.
“I don’t believe that the leaders of
those three unions are angry at the members of the affiliated unions.
Whether it comes to that, it all depends on what the national leaders
determine what they should do. Thankfully, none of that has trickled
down.”
This article appears in Aug 4-10, 2005.
