Change to Win holds founding convention

Close to 900 delegates, alternates and observers crowded into a hotel convention floor in downtown St. Louis on Sept. 27 for the founding convention of Change to Win. This newly formed federation of unions represents 5.4 million workers who have broken with the AFL-CIO. The move was initiated primarily by the Service Employees, led by Andrew Stern. The Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), UNITE-HERE, Carpenters, Laborers and the United Farm Workers have joined the new federation.

The apparent core issue behind this split in the labor movement has been its failure to organize millions of low-paid and exploited workers while existing union jobs were disappearing. Unfor tu nately, very little of this debate has trickled down to the union members, who could provide the energy and initiative needed to develop new strategies.

The newly formed federation announ ced that 75 percent of its $16 million bud get will be earmarked for union organizing, along with the development of “Sector Coordinating Committees” targeting specific industries and “Strategic Organizing Centers.”

The conference took place in one day. Delegates from each of the seven unions were carefully picked. Resolutions were presented without the usual debate common to union conventions and were interspersed between presentations by rank-and-file workers from organizing campaigns.

All seven heads of the represented unions gave prepared remarks. Each delegation was in proportion to its union size. For instance, the Service Employ ees had 117 voting delegates and the Teamsters 108. Altogether there were 460 voting delegates.

Cintas laundry workers, Wal-Mart employees, DHL delivery drivers, First Student school bus drivers, Tyson poultry workers and workers from various hotel chains spoke about the exploitation that drove them to campaign for a union. Their energy was felt at the convention as they described their hardships and sacrifice.

War issue is conspicuously absent

Conspicuously absent from discussion at the convention was the Iraq War. Just three days earlier close to half a million people had marched in the streets, from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles. It is workers and poor communities who most feel the devastation of the war—particularly Iraqi workers who have suffered under U.S. imperialist occupation.

International solidarity cannot be an empty platitude. The union movement cannot develop a successful strategy without taking into account the imperialist war. What good is it for workers to achieve a needed wage increase if it is taken away by the high cost of oil? What about the youth who are maimed or killed in the war or the rampant racism so viciously unmasked in the Katrina crisis—aren’t these issues for the union movement? What about the budget cuts that have devastated whole communities because the money is going to the Pentagon?

If the working class is to fight effectively it will need a movement that can take on the capitalist system both politically and economically. Unity is one important part of this strategy. How can it be helpful to separate janitors, hotel and hospital workers, now in the new federation, from steel workers and public employees, who remain in the AFL-CIO?

Woman, African American
in top posts

A new 10-member Leadership Coun cil was made up of the heads of the seven represented unions, who are male and white with the exception of the United Farm Workers, plus three seats set aside to strengthen race and gender diversity. The council elected Anna Burger, secretary treasurer of SEIU, as chair of Change to Win and Edgar Romney, African American exe cutive vice president of UNITE-HERE, as its secretary treasurer. Geral dyn Lutty, international vice president of the UFCW, will hold the third seat.

This marks a first for a labor federation of this size. The three choices were enthusiastically endorsed at the convention. Many women’s and civil rights groups will certainly see this as a step in the right direction.

It is critical to note that this is a response to protracted protests by the leadership of the Million Worker March, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Black Workers for Justice, the Coalition of Labor Union Women and many others in the immigrant rights and women’s movement who continue to fight for more representation.

It is also a reflection of the aspirations of the rank and file, who are primarily people of color, women and immigrant workers. Much more needs to be done to address the issue of racism and national oppression at all levels in workers’ organizations if the union movement is to succeed.

Response to Katrina crisis

The Teamsters announced plans to respond to the Katrina disaster. IBT president James Hoffa, who spoke first and received a standing ovation, proclaimed, “Who got the first no-bid contract? That’s right—Halliburton. What was George Bush’s first action in the devastated region? To repeal Davis-Bacon. That means Halli burton won’t have to pay construction workers 13 bucks an hour. $27,000 a year is too much for Cheney’s cronies.”

Hoffa also exclaimed, “We are reaching out to new worker communities: African-American waste workers in the South; Latino port drivers on both coasts; and Hispanic construction workers across the country.”

Change to Win announced plans to develop worker training centers in the Gulf Coast region to rebuild the devastated communities. Before the convention on Monday morning, the federation held a press conference with the Rev. Jesse Jackson of the PUSH organization on the Katrina crisis.

How can we organize without addres sing the issue of national oppression? The African American community and all those who are oppressed and poor need aid, yes, and the right to return to New Orleans and the region. But labor should also take on the issue of who will control the reconstruction—the people or the corporations? This would do more than any one organizing campaign to advance labor’s cause.

These are just a few of the questions that the union movement will have to answer in the coming months.