(The Associated Press circulated the following article on May 16.)
WASHINGTON — Some of organized labor’s largest unions criticized the AFL-CIO’s leadership Monday, contending the federation’s proposal for organizing new workers is too little, too late.
With a battle for the presidency of the AFL-CIO coming in July, the unions said the umbrella group should spend half its budget on organizing new workers.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has focused on political and legislative fronts during his nearly decade-long tenure, and under pressure from other union leaders he turned last month to organizing, proposing a $22.5 million strategic fund to sign up new workers. The AFL-CIO laid off 167 employees this month as part of his plan to increase spending on membership drives.
A Teamsters proposal to return $47 million to unions for organizing lost in a committee of the AFL-CIO’s Executive Council in March in Las Vegas.
”Las Vegas was probably the high water mark” for Sweeney, said Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union. ”It only strengthened our resolve and I think Sweeney is beginning to lose support.”
Teamsters President James P. Hoffa said radical changes are required in how the labor movement operates.
The laborers and hotel and restaurant workers unions joined the Teamsters and SEIU in supporting a plan that would place much more emphasis on organizing workers. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union also backed the plan.
The five unions represent more than 5 million workers.
Calling for an end to division, Sweeney said those proposals are similar to the AFL-CIO’s of last month and ”it’s hard to imagine” why they would be the basis for dividing and weakening the labor movement. The only way to find solutions to historic challenges is to do it together, he said.
The fight over who will run the AFL-CIO comes at a perilous time for the federation. The unionized portion of the U.S. work force has dropped from 32.5 percent in the mid-1950s to 12 percent.