July 25, 2006

BY FRANCINE KNOWLES

A year after two of the AFL-CIO's biggest unions broke away from the national labor federation to build a new one, local labor leaders say unions have been able to maintain solidarity here.

But there have been hurdles, and more lie ahead.

"Initially there was a lot of trepidation, said Illinois AFL-CIO President Margaret Blackshere of the split and formation of Change to Win. "Everybody was kind of holding their breaths wondering if it would change their relationships.

"It's not been perfect, but on the whole, very little has changed at the state level."

Dennis Gannon, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor echoed that sentiment. After the split, he cancelled board meetings that were scheduled for September and October.

"That was deliberate," he said. "We took a deep breath. We didn't burn any bridges."

In July, shortly after forming Change to Win, the Service Employees International Union and the Teamsters opted to defect from the national AFL-CIO because of disagreements on leadership and organizing tactics. The defections took place at the start of the AFL-CIO's national convention which took place here in Chicago. SEIU accounted for roughly 7 percent of the Illinois AFL-CIO's budget at the time, and the Teamsters accounted for roughly 3 percent.

Soon after the United Food and Commercial Workers union and Unite-Here, which represent grocery store workers, and hotel, restaurant and needle trades workers, also defected. The four unions accounted for $1.2 million of the Chicago Fed's annual budget.

To date, seven unions have become part of Change to Win. They include the laborers and farmer workers unions, which left the AFL-CIO, and the carpenters union, which quit the federation years earlier.

But the Chicago Federation of Labor and the Illinois AFL-CIO say their budgets haven't been hurt by the split. That's because of an agreement on solidarity charters worked out at the national level between Change to Win and AFL-CIO leadership that allows unaffiliated Change to Win unions to continue serving on AFL-CIO affiliate boards and paying dues.

At the Illinois AFL-CIO, Change to Win locals remain actively involved, Blackshere said. The case is the same at the Chicago Federation of Labor, said Gannon.

AFL-CIO affiliates and Change to Win unions have teamed up on the Big Box living wage ordinance and immigration reform, rallied together for worker-friendly contracts, walked picket lines at the Congress Plaza hotel, and lobbied for a pro-labor construction industry bidders ordinance, Blackshere and Gannon said.

There continues to be "a really very good working relationship at the local level," said Unite-Here Local 1 President Henry Tamarin.

SEIU Local 1 President Tom Balanoff echoed that sentiment.

But there also have been serious disagreements. The split raised concerns that Change to Win unions would raid other AFL-CIO unaffiliated unions, and in late February, the Teamsters sought to represent 6,000 CTA bus drivers who already were represented by the Amalgamated Transportation Union, an AFL-CIO affiliate. The Teamsters later backed off.

A few weeks later, workers in the Cook County Clerk's office voted to replace AFSCME, also an AFL-CIO affiliate, with the Teamsters.

Those two situations "were some of the hardest for us to navigate," said Gannon. "It made it a little more difficult when we'd have our executive board meetings to manage [that] internal fighting. But there hasn't been a whole hell of a lot of that. There has been a lot of folks that have stepped up to mend fences."g

But things could change next year. The solidarity charters are set to expire at the end of the year.

"I don't have a crystal ball," to predict what will happen next year, said Gannon. "I just hope that folks here in Chicago keep moving forward the same way we are today."