Eva Seidelman, ILRF Program Assistant

According to a New York Times article today, calls from the Obama administration have encouraged the Change to Win coalition to re-unite with the AFL-CIO to reunite the US' twelve biggest unions, after the split three years ago. The SEIU, UNITE-HERE, Teamsters and a few other unions left the AFL-CIO for various reasons, but particularly because they wanted to focus more heavily on organizing new members to grow the labor movement. This seemed like a progressive move led by Andy Stern, president of SEIU, at the time but after my experience as an organizer with one of SEIU largest most progressive, democratic locals, United Healthcare Workers West (UHW) in California, I have mixed feelings about the goals of some of the international union leaders who sit in their offices in DC claiming to be in touch with members and workers. If the AFL-CIO and Change to Win (which includes SEIU) really care about union members, they should respect member driven unions that demand to make their own organizational choices. Unity is important, but union democracy is even more important.

If the AFL-CIO re-unites, that's fine, because all workers will benefit from a  united  voice  in pushing for the Employee Free Choice Act, set to come to the House floor in the coming months. But the AFL-CIO should demand that Andy Stern respect local union democracy and autonomy before re-uniting. Stern has put UHW under trusteeship, in other words, he's launching a coup d'etat to move the local's 65,000 long term care workers into another local of SEIU that is more in line with SEIU (the international's) goals to negotiate agreements (that undermine the interests of workers, in my personal view) with nursing home corporations in exchange for gaining organizing rights.  It's a long story, but I organized nursing home workers in the midst of this fight and I can tell you, Stern's moves are very anti-democratic. Workers will have even less faith in unions if they are shifted from one to the other, without a fair process or vote. Much of this internal fighting is a result of our countries unfair labor laws. Passing EFCA would certainly help everyone.

Maybe the union movement just needs more women leaders like Lilly Ledbetter. (This is a sad attempt to change topics to the Lilly Ledbetter Paycheck Fairness Act that will also be up for a vote in House soon.)