Change to Win to concentrate on organizing and politics
CHICAGO (PAI) — The Change
to Win labor federation set future plans
for strategic organizing campaigns and
approved a 10-cent-per-capita assess-
ment for politics for the 2007-2008
election cycle at its second biennial
convention Sept. 25.
In a press conference after the one-
day convention, CTW Chair Anna
Burger said the federation’s Strategic
Organizing Center would step up its
services to member unions by helping
to train organizers, coordinate cam-
paigns and marshal financial re-
sources, among other things.
But the political assessment was a
new move, given CTW’s prior empha-
sis on organizing rather than politics
— that was a reason which led seven
unions to split from the AFL-CIO in
2005. The seven — Service Employ-
ees, United Food and Commercial
Workers, the Teamsters, the Laborers,
the Carpenters, United Farm Workers
and UNITE HERE — felt the older
labor federation put too much empha-
sis, relatively, on politics.
CTW’s new emphasis on politics
means in some states CTW will set up
its own statewide political/organizing
operations, while in others its unions’
locals will continue working under
“Solidarity Charters” with AFL-CIO
state federations and central labor
councils on joint operations. “In some
of these states, the AFL-CIO operation
is our operation,” Burger stated. She
singled out New York, Nevada and
California. As for the Solidarity Char-
ters in general, she added: “Wherever
locals want to work together they can,
and where they don’t want to, they
won’t.”
[In Oregon, only the Laborers and
UNITE HERE are affiliated with the
state AFL-CIO. Other Change to Win
unions have Solidarity Charters at var-
ious central labor councils.]
The 10-cent surcharge, which could
raise up to $14 million over the two
years, will be used “to build a state-of-
the-art coordinated political program
to ensure the election of a pro-labor
president in 2008 and pro-labor ma-
jorities in the Senate and House in or-
der to pass the Employee Free Choice
Act,” according to a resolution passed
by some 1,000 delegates.
CTW said the Employee Free
Choice Act — a bill that would level
the playing field between workers and
companies in union organizing drives
— “will serve as the focus of all of
Change to Win’s political work lead-
ing into 2009.” The Employee Free
Choice Act passed in the Democratic-
controlled House earlier this year by a
bipartisan 241-185 margin, but it fell
victim to a Republican filibuster in the
Senate, though it had majority support
there, too.
Besides the political assessment,
Change to Win delegates set out other
goals for the next two years.
One was “continuing to realign our
unions into the same industries” for
the same groups of workers and in-
creased emphasis on organizing in
core industries, Burger said. “We
adopted a set of strategies around or-
ganizing and structure.”
One such organizing drive already
under way is focusing on 90,000 port
workers and drivers. It’s a national
campaign, but most of the workers are
in Los Angeles-Long Beach. The
Teamsters are leading that campaign,
but CTW’s Strategic Organizing Cen-
ter is providing training, research and
recruiting new organizers.
The Organizing Center will get
three-fourths of CTW’s $18 million
budget, said Burger, whom the group’s
Executive Board elected to a new two-
year term in August. Other strategic in-
dustry-wide organizing drives will be
in construction and transportation, but
have yet to start.
Joe Hansen, international president
of UFCW, said in the morning session
that since the 2004 Southern Califor-
nia grocery workers’ lockout-and-
strike, it has changed to devote most of
its budget to organizing.
“We raised organizing spending by
28 percent and we’re looking to hire
50 more organizers,” he said.
Hansen identified one key area
where the Strategic Organizing Center
can help its member unions: Finding
qualified organizers to run nationwide
campaigns. “We couldn’t have big
campaigns. We didn’t have the capac-
ity,” he admitted. So the center helped
UFCW’s national grocery workers’
drive — and that drive led to this
year’s contract settlements with the
three big grocery chains in Southern
California and St. Louis which rolled
back the two-tier wage system and
health care cuts the grocery chains
won in L.A. in 2004.
“We didn’t have a national strategy
then. We have one now, and Safeway,
Albertsons and Kroger knew it,”
Hansen said. “They realized that if
anything happened in Southern Cali-
fornia, it would quickly spread. The
results there bear that out.”
UFCW backs Merkley for Senate
United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 555, Oregon’s largest
private-sector union, has endorsed Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley’s bid
for the U.S. Senate.The Democratic primary isn’t until May 2008, but cam-
paigning has begun early in an effort to unseat Republican incumbent Gordon
Smith.
Local 555 President Gene Pronovost pointed to the success of House Bill
3339 in the last session of the Oregon Legislature as an example of Merkley’s
commitment to working families. That bill guarantees unemployment benefits
to employees in multi-employer bargaining units who are locked-out by their
employers during a labor dispute through no fault of their own.
“Without Jeff’s leadership, that bill probably would have died once again
this session,” Pronovost said. “But his refusal to let big corporations run over
workers means Oregon families won’t face financial ruin as a result of a lock-
out.”
UFCW Local 555 represents 18,000 workers in Oregon and Southwestern
Washington. Their membership is comprised of workers in retail, manufac-
turing, health care and other industries.
Michael E. Hardeman, Business Representative
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OCTOBER 5, 2007
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