In the worst rift in the US labor movement in decades, the country's largest union federation broke apart Monday when two of its largest and most powerful factions decided to leave.
The breakup in the 50-year-old AFL-CIO umbrella group reflects bitter disputes within US organized labor over how to reverse a longtime slide in membership and declining political influence.
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters truckers' union announced Monday that they would leave the AFL-CIO.
The SEIU, with 1.8 million members, is the largest group in the 13 million-member AFL-CIO. The Teamsters have 1.4 million members.
Both dissident unions want to see more resources focused on shop-floor organizing and winning new members, while the AFL-CIO has poured money into lobbying and supporting political candidates.
"In our view, we must have more union members in order to change the political climate that is undermining workers' rights in this country," Teamsters leader James Hoffa said Monday. "The AFL-CIO has chosen the opposite approach."
SEIU and the Teamsters are joining a new labor organization, called the "Change To Win" coalition, which now represents 7 million workers, in what Hoffa called "the beginning of a new era for America's workers."
The announcements marred the start of an AFL-CIO convention in Chicago that was meant to celebrate 50 years since the American Federation of Labour and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged in 1955.
Two other large unions did not attend the AFL-CIO convention that is currently being held in Chicago, Illinois, and it is possible that they will also leave the umbrella group.
"We know that all the leaders of the AFL-CIO would like to see a world where workers' efforts are valued and rewarded," said SEIU President Andrew Stern in a letter to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
"But for many years, and particularly in the past nine months, our members and leaders have concluded that there are sincere, fundamental, and irreconcilable disagreements about how to accomplish that goal."
Both unions said, however, that they would continue to work with the AFL-CIO and support union members from all groups.
In a combative statement on the convention boycott, Sweeney said Sunday that "it is a shame for working people that before the first vote has been cast, four unions have decided that if they can't win, they won't show up for the game."
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