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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 2006)
AFL-CIO Executive Council extends Solidarity Charters The question is: Will Change to Win unions go along with the plan? WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) — The AFL-CIO Executive Council voted Nov. 14 to extend the “Solidarity Char- ters” program through 2008. Charters let Change to Win (CTW) local unions participate in state federations and local central labor councils. Whether CTW will take them up on it is another story. In its statement, the AFL-CIO ex- plained the 2006 election campaign showed the value of the charters, allow- ing the CTW locals from the United Food and Commercial Workers, the Teamsters, the Laborers, the Service Employees, UNITE HERE, the Car- penters and the United Farm Workers to join state feds and central labor coun- cils. In most cases, the AFL-CIO and CTW combined political operations to present one coordinated labor campaign in the run-up to the 2006 mid-term elec- tions. The CTW locals were also supposed to pay proportional shares of the costs for joint efforts, the AFL-CIO statement said. But it said there have been some glitches. “The disaffiliated (CTW) unions have still not reached a ‘fair share’ agreement on the disaffiliated national unions helping to fund the local bodies. There has also been some raiding PDC to discuss construction wages Dec. 6 The Wednesday, Dec. 6, Portland Development Commission board meeting will serve as a fourth work session to discuss wage standards on public-private construction projects that PDC helps finance. The meeting will include a panel discussion on apprenticeship and training, as well as public testimony. The PDC Board has heard testimony from workers, contractors, union offi- cials and bureaucrats over the past three months. The Board will discuss their intentions for the parameters of a wage policy at the Dec. 6 meeting, but it is unlikely they will adopt an actual policy at that time. Also on the agenda will be a presentation of PDC’s Diversity Report. The meeting starts at 8 a.m. at 222 NW Fifth Ave., Portland. among unions, which is prohibited un- der the Solidarity Charters,” the AFL- CIO statement said. The AFL-CIO established the char- ters program after the loss of the CTW locals, starting in July 2005, led to crises at dozens of state feds and CLCs. Many lost 40 percent or more of their funding, people or both. State and local leaders pressured the national AFL-CIO to create a working agreement with CTW. The result was the charters, and the AFL-CIO issued some 2,500 of them to Change to Win locals that wanted to stay in state feds or labor councils. In Oregon, Solidarity Charters have primarily benefited central labor coun- cils. Three of the states largest locals — Service Employees Locals 503 and 49, and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 — are affiliated with various labor councils in the state, but none maintains a Solidarity Charter with the Oregon AFL-CIO. Creation of charters led to a later AFL-CIO working agreement with the independent National Education Asso- ciation, letting locals of the nation’s largest union — with more than 2.3 mil- lion members — join state feds and la- bor councils on roughly the same terms. Whether Change to Win will con- tinue with the charters is still open. Ser- THE UNION PLUS ® MORTGAGE PROGRAM Provided Exclusively by Chase Home Finance vice Employees President Andy Stern, whose union is CTW’s largest, has said in the past that he is skeptical about con- tinuing the charters. And CTW Chair Anna Burger said in a post-election in- terview the charters are still under dis- cussion. “We think it (the program) worked out in some places,” she said. 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