The fracture in the largest US labor confederation is posing potential problems for the minority Democratic Party, which relies heavily on unions for money and volunteers.
It also could play into the hands of Republicans seeking to extend their presence within the labor movement, traditionally one of the most Democratic constituencies.
Two unions representing 3.2 million workers, the Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union, bolted from the AFL-CIO on Monday. Further defections were possible.
The exodus came in a dispute over what dissidents see as AFL-CIO president John Sweeney's inability to halt declining union membership and over the movement's future. Critics say union leaders should shift their emphasis from electoral politics to recruiting members.
Because the AFL-CIO has played such a major role in supporting Democrats over the years, the rift is producing unease among top Democrats who have seen control of both Congress and the presidency slip away in recent years.
"I don't know what's going to happen, but it's not going to help," said Representative Charles Rangel. "I really hoped it wouldn't come to this. It's not the money, it's the lack of unity on the issues and not having a solid front."
Labor experts suggested the dispute could continue to erode the Democratic hold on labor and offer an opening to Republicans.
"This put labor up for grabs in American politics again," said Peter Morici, a business professor at the University of Maryland.
In particular, Morici said he expected Republicans to reach out directly to union members and try to cut deals with Andrew Stern, dissident coalition leader in the service workers' union.
"Stern is more of a pragmatist" than old-school labor leaders like Sweeney, Morici said.
Both Stern and Teamsters president James Hoffa disputed that Democratic candidates would suffer a net loss of support from the split.
"We will have as much or more money to organize and to be politically active," Hoffa told reporters in Chicago, the site of this week's troubled AFL-CIO convention.
But there will be "a period of adjustment" that will begin to have an impact on candidates running next year, Democratic strategist Jenny Backus said.
"Instead of one-stop shopping, it will be two-stop shopping" for those seeking union support, she said.
However, most Democratic candidates "already have strong relationships" with both the AFL-CIO and the two unions that bolted.
"It is disappointing. I think we work better when we're united," Backus said.
Stern's Change to Win Coalition comprises seven unions, four of which boycotted the AFL-CIO convention: the SEIU, Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers and UNITE HERE, a group of textile, hotel and restaurant employees.
Sweeney called the defections and boycott of the convention by the latter two unions -- UFCW and UNITE HERE -- "a grievous insult to all the unions." Labor officials expect UFCW and UNITE HERE to leave the AFL-CIO later.
Before Monday's split, the AFL-CIO had 13 million members.
Democratic leaders tread cautiously in public comments.
"I know these are trying times for labor," Senator Edward Kennedy, dean of the party's liberal wing, told the AFL-CIO convention.
The House of Representatives minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, said it was "vital that whatever decisions are made this week, labor must emerge from this convention stronger, and ready to confront any challenge."
Phil Singer, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said that despite the upheaval, "At the end of the day, American workers are going to support the party whose agenda best fits their priorities."
That's the Democratic Party, and "that's not going to change," Singer said.
Still, Democratic leaders were clearly edgy about the internal dispute that provided the latest blow to a labor movement that peaked in the 1950s and has been losing political clout and membership almost ever since.
People from union households represented 24 percent of last year's presidential election vote. They chose Democrat John Kerry over Republican Bush by a margin of 3-2.
Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, conceded, "The labor movement is unfortunately weaker today than it was yesterday."
He suggested the rift could have an impact on state and local races such as for governor, mayor and State legislatures "because many unions have individual agendas."
"I don't see any real effect on the national political scene," McEntee said.
Republicans seemed content to watch from the sidelines.
"That's a matter for those organizations to address," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. "The president has a long record of reaching out to working Americans and working families."
To John Hastert, 45, of Green River, Wyoming, a delegate for the United Steelworkers, the split with the Teamsters and the SIEU "couldn't come at a worse time."
"The labor movement is under attack. We need to expend our energy getting better wages and better health care, not on this infighting," Hastert said.
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