In November 2004, the 1.8 million member SEIU, released its plan to reignite the U.S. labor movement and begin a global movement. The plan is called Unite to Win.

The Unite to Win plan is a ten point plan to revamp the AFL-CIO into a leaner labor organizing force. The first point, and perhaps the most interesting, is that the SEIU proposes to “build new strength by stopping the ‘Wal-Marting’ of jobs.” The SEIU wants the AFL-CIO to put up dollars and energy to fight for good paying jobs which offer health care and benefits domestically and abroad. The abroad aspect leads to SEIU’s tenth point.

The SEIU wants to “build new strength by uniting a global labor movement.” Domestic “unions must join with others around the world to form a global labor movement…” that fights “for trade agreements that raise labor and environmental standards to the highest level instead of bringing them down to the lowest.” The SEIU proposes that the AFL-CIO accomplishes these goals through increased union organizing and political action.

The political action aspect is fascinating because the SEIU continues to support the Democratic Party and wants the Party, labor’s ally for at least for the last 50 years, to transform itself. For instance, in an early 2005 interview with Lakshmi Chaudhry of AlterNet (available at alternet.org), SEIU President Andy Stern said that “the Democratic Party has been unable to maintain any kind of infrastructure or organization that could talk to voters regularly …” Stern further indicated that “there’s a desperate need for a clear Democratic [Party] economic message that appeals to workers, not entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and intellectuals.”

The SEIU has also joined with three other AFL-CIO affiliates, the Laborers, Teamsters and UNITE HERE to offer their own reform proposal (along with a fourth affiliate, they’re also proposing to break away from the AFL-CIO; more on this later). In May of this year, they issued “Restoring the American Dream: Building A 21st Century Labor Movement that Can Win” (available at unitetowin). It’s a six page plan which in general terms states that the labor movement and the federation must grow and impact the global economy.

In order to grow, organizing must be emphasized and financed (P. 1). Regarding politics, the federation and the labor movement must be “independent of any party or candidate” (P. 4). Notice the distinction between this statement and the SEIU’s position as previously discussed? Here, the SEIU, and its partners, are pursuing a nonpartisan approach, whereas on its own, the SEIU proposed that the Democratic Party reform itself. The plan also calls for increasing racial, ethnic and gender diversity (Pp. 5-6), and goes a step further by stating that the “AFL-CIO must also play a leading role in the movement to defend the rights of immigrant workers to join a union and be protected on the job. This means taking the lead in the movement to ensure that hard-working, taxpaying immigrants have a clear path to legalization” (P. 5). This is a bold and forward thinking statement, though the coalition of four doesn’t indicate how to get from A to Z. The plan also addresses globalization and the “Wal-Martization” of jobs by stating that the AFL-CIO must develop a global plan “to ensure that global corporations respect workers’ freedom to form unions and negotiate agreements. . .” (P. 6). Although general in nature, the plan is not as extreme as the SEIU’s November 2004 Unite to Win plan. And, as busy as the SEIU has been with proposal writing, they have also been busy forming a coalition to potentially breakaway from the AFL-CIO.

At Least Four Unions Propose Splitting Up the AFL-CIO

The Change to Win Coalition is the dissident faction which may leave the AFL-CIO later this month. The Coalition, which is comprised of the SEIU, Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, UNITE HERE and the Laborers, is 5 million of the AFL-CIO’s 13 million members (about 38%). Furthermore, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners also joined (July 15, 2005, Francine Knowles, Business, suntimes.com). The key thrust of the Coalition is that it wants the AFL-CIO to spend approximately 50% of dues on organizing workers. As will be discussed below, the AFL-CIO is proposing to increase organizing funds by $10 million per year, which according to the Coalition is insufficient.

My next post will discuss the AFL-CIO’s response to the criticisms and possible split.