The fragile glass that was Change to Win is all but smashed now.
With Andy and Anna gone, the SEIU raid on UNITE-HERE all settled up, there’s not much left of the Federation that Andy Built when he broke up the AFL-CIO in 2005.
Now, one by one, the wayward union bosses are beginning to knock on the door of the House of Labor and asking to be let back in.
The Laborers’ International Union has agreed to rejoin the AFL-CIO, sparking hopes that a once-splintered labor movement is moving closer to reuniting under a single umbrella.
“We are very excited that the labor movement is headed toward becoming more unified just as we need it the most,” said Richard Trumka, president of American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, or AFL-CIO, on Friday in a statement issued to The Associated Press.
Laborers spokesman David Miller declined to confirm the decision, but said leaders of the 800,000-member union representing construction workers would have more to say after a meeting on Sunday. Trumka told the AFL-CIO’s executive council last week that the move would become final in October.
The Laborers and five other unions bolted from the federation in 2005 in a bitter dispute that damaged the AFL-CIO’s political heft and sapped millions in dues from its budget.
After Anna Burger’s departure from both the SEIU and Change to Win earlier this week, and Joe Hansen’s ascension to the top of the shattered federation, it’s only a matter of time before most of the remaining Change to Win unions go groveling back into the waiting arms of Richard “the Fifth” Trumka. [Mary Kay Henry will likely find her and the SEIU’s place back in the AFL-CIO hierarchy soon.]
Some day, maybe even the Teamster will go and ring the doorbell as well. That is, if Jimmy P. Hoffa can over his 13-year feud* with Richard “the Fifth” Trumka, the Teamsters might actually rejoin the AFL-CIO as well.
* See background of the Hoffa-Trumka feud here
__________________
“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776
For more news and views on today’s unions, go to LaborUnionReport.com.
