Laborers' Union to ReJoin the AFL-CIO

Posted on August 16, 2010 by Labor Management Relations Practice Group

Ending a four-year schism, the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) has decided to rejoin the AFL-CIO as of October 1, 2010. LIUNA, with more than half a million members in the construction industry, had withdrawn from the AFL-CIO in 2006 to affiliate with Change to Win, a competing labor movement comprised of the LIUNA, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW). The SEIU instigated this mass defection from the AFL-CIO to form Change to Win in 2005, purportedly due to internal disagreements about the direction of the organization. AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka has made it a mission to unify the labor movement.

In a statement, LIUNA General President Terry O’Sullivan claimed: “Now more than ever, working people and our country need a united union movement,” adding, “Despite the historic success of the 2008 federal elections, too much is not getting done on Capitol Hill. A united union movement can better focus Congress – and particularly the U.S. Senate – on helping to lead our nation, rather than being locked in inaction.” Several items on labor’s legislative agenda have been stymied by opposition in the Senate in recent years, a prime example being the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would provide for “card check” recognition of unions.

The LIUNA’s announcement comes on the heels of SEIU’s secretary-treasurer Anna Burger’s announcement that she is retiring from the union as well as stepping down from her position as Chair of Change to Win. Whether the other four Change to Win labor unions will follow LIUNA’s suit and reaffiliate with the AFL-CIO is uncertain. Also uncertain is whether Change to Win would then disband, or instead provide a framework within the AFL-CIO organization for continued cooperation between these unions.

This entry was written by Stephen Smith.

Photo credit: YanC
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Labor Secretary Solis Reaffirms Commitment to EFCA's Passage, DOL Enforcement Efforts in AFL-CIO Speech

Posted on September 14, 2009 by Jay Sumner

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told attendees of the AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention in Pittsburgh today that she will work with the White House to “make the strongest case possible for the Employee Free Choice Act” and reiterated her position that the Department of Labor (DOL) “is once again back in the enforcement business.”  Her speech also outlined recent DOL enforcement efforts, and proposed regulations to reform the H-2A temporary agricultural worker program.

With respect to DOL enforcement, Solis announced that the agency is “adding nearly 670 additional investigators, inspectors, and other program staff, returning our worker protection efforts to a level not seen since 2001. So far, these resources has allowed the Wage and Hour Division to ensure that contractors on federal stimulus projects pay their workers the prevailing wage rates that they are entitled to.” Solis emphasized that worker safety is a chief concern, noting that since July, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has completed 689 inspections and issued nearly 1,100 violations resulting in $1.6 million in fines.

Solis touched on immigration reform as well, explaining that the DOL is proposing to restructure the H-2A visa program. According to Solis, the proposed regulations “will reverse what I believe are unjust wage issues and working conditions for vulnerable U.S. and temporary foreign workers,” and “will ensure that before we import temporary workers to meet some labor shortages, U.S. workers have first dibs.”

As for the beleaguered Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), Solis claimed that “it’s not enough to have fair wages and a safe workplace – workers also need a voice on the job!” To that end, Solis pledged to support EFCA, as well as the use of Project Labor Agreements for large federally funded projects.

President Obama is scheduled to speak at the AFL-CIO convention tomorrow.
 

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Nursing Unions Merge Forming 150,000-Member Association

Posted on February 18, 2009 by Jay Sumner

A large and powerful new union has formed from the merger of three nursing associations to create the 150,000 member United American Nurses-National Nurses Organizing Committee, UAN-NNOC (AFL-CIO). According to a joint statement issued by the United American Nurses, California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, and the Massachusetts Nurses Association, the goals of this new union are to:

  • Build a Registered Nurses (RN) movement in order to defend and advance the interests of direct care nurses across the country;
  • Organize all non-union direct care RNs (a substantial majority of the budget shall be dedicated to new organizing);
  • Provide a powerful national voice for RN rights, safe RN practice, including RN-to-patient staffing ratios under the principle that safe staffing saves lives, and health care justice;
  • Provide a vehicle for solidarity with sister nurse and allied organizations around the world;
  • Create a national Taft-Hartley pension for union RNs.

Now the largest nurses’ labor union, the UAN-NNOC will have the clout and finances to pursue its “guiding principle” that all registered nurses be represented by an RN union.

For more information on this development, see Littler's ASAP:  Major Merger of Nursing Unions to Shake Up Health Care by Anita M. Polli, John D. Doran, Jenna S. Barresi, and Jennifer L. Mora.

 

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