Posted on 01/12/2006 6:34:30 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - The United Farm Workers union has left the AFL-CIO and will join a group of breakaway unions known as the Change to Win Coalition, in a move the UFW hopes will boost recruiting efforts, officials said Thursday.
The UFW, with about 27,000 members, joins the Service Employees International Union, the Teamsters, the United Food and Commercial Workers, UNITE HERE and the Carpenters in forming the dissident Change To Win Coalition. The Laborers International Union of North America also is part of the new federation, but has not left the AFL-CIO.
"We view this as a positive step in fulfilling our twin commitments of focusing more resources on organizing and finding new ways to pursue employers that fiercely resist the right of workers to organize," said Marc Grossman, a UFW spokesman. "No employers more fiercely resist the right to organize than agriculture."
UFW already was allied with the Change to Win unions, but sent a letter two days ago informing the AFL-CIO, a federation of more than 50 unions, of its plans to leave.
"We regret to see them leave the federation because there's a lot of history there," said AFL-CIO spokeswoman Denise Mitchell. "It's a union with a proud legacy that got a lot of support from the entire movement, especially the AFL-CIO. I hope we will make history together again in the future."
The farm workers union was founded by Cesar Chavez, an agricultural worker. He died in 1993.
When the AFL-CIO formed 50 years ago, union membership was at its zenith, with one of every three private-sector workers belonging to a labor group. Now, fewer than 8 percent of private-sector workers are unionized.
The breakaway movement started last summer with the departure of the Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union. The departure of a half-dozen unions has left the labor federation with more than 50 unions representing almost 9 million workers.
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On the Net:
AFL-CIO: http://www.aflcio.org
Change to Win Coalition: http://www.changetowin.org
United Farm Workers: http://www.ufw.org
Divide and conquer.
Is this good, or is this simply jumping into a similar sinking ship....
United Farmworkers Unite!
Socialists dividing from the Marxists?
Not sure, the AFL-CIO has been crumbling for awhile now.
May be a good time for the UFW to move on. ;-)
Time and paychecks will tell.
lol, that's another way to phrase it. ;-)
AFLCIO is not about keeping work or money in the USA
It's all about making money for the Union.
Same goes for Teamsters, IAM, UAW....
You have the right to organize, you parasitic, lazy thug. We have the right to say "Kiss my ass."
Die, unions, die. Die, die, die!
FRom .. Socialist Action /September 2002
UFW Marches Again - but Toward What Goal?
http://www.socialistaction.org/news/200209/ufw.html
I still remember the good feeling I got when I left the IBEW almost 10 years ago. Buncha dirtballs.
Unyeilding
Nonproductive
Insufferable
Overpaid
Neer-do-wells
It will be interesting to see if the campaign contributions and PACs change at all. I bet not.
Very good news for the labor movement.
Someone probably looked at the income from the organization and how much was being spent (returned) on their activities/interests.
This includes things like Labor Management Salaries, perks, bonuses, expense accounts, etc.
It also includes things like recruitment (more revenue).
So, deciding to break away means more more to Farm Labor Management and more Money for more recruitment which means more money for Farm Labor Mangement perks.
That's how I see it!
Liberals Love Corruption or LLC!
This is deeply good news. The AFL-CIO has become dominated by public-sector unions, which are an anathema to democracy, and which have forced their partner unions to adopt all manners of degenerate political opinions which have nothing to do with the purpose workers have in joining unions: to secure decent wages.
To join with Andy Stern the leader of the break way group, you HAVE to buy into a willingness to either actually support a Republican here or there or at least start withholding your blind support of the evil donkey.
This is nice news. It means that the leadership of the Farm workers are ready to make the jump. They sneaked this is in January during the Alito hearings so few would notice. This will be fun.
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