Working Life's ongoing special section devoted to holding the Cafta Fifteen accountable.
Buy the Wal-Mart documentary for $12.95
« Cashing In a Vote | Main | CTW: Dollars For Organizing »
September 23, 2005
Laborers, Letter Carriers: Next To Leave?
So, next week, the Change To Win coalition holds its founding convention in St. Louis (it will be a quick one-day affair on Tuesday. Sept. 27th--and yours truly will be there typing away and posting). This past week, the Laborers executive board authorized disaffiliation from the AFL-CIO--with the final decision yet to come on whether to pull out. I'll say more about this in a moment but here's a more interesting tidbit.
I hear the National Association of Letter Carriers might be thinking of leaving, too. I heard a buzz from the union's local level a couple of weeks ago that they had been told that the union's national leadership was not happy with 16th Street and was considering leaving. Wasn't sure that was just an isolated rumble but I've heard now from a completely different source at the national level that, yes, in fact, the Letter Carriers may be in play.
This is not a huge union--maybe 200,000 active mail carriers who work for the U.S. Postal Service. So, its disaffiliation would not have much of a financial or organizational impact on the AFL-CIO. It would be more psychological.
Back to the Laborers: no particular surprise here. The Laborers has been a stalwart part of the Change To Win coalition going back to the March AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting. You may remember that Terry O'Sullivan, the Laborers prez, had been rumored to be a possible compromise candidate for AFL-CIO president in the pre-AFL-CIO convention days. He has tried to maintain a foot in both camps. It may be that the Laborers don't figure there is a reason to stay in the AFL-CIO as the Change To Win coalition sets up shop as a competing federation that may soon equal, or surpass, the AFL-CIO's size.
September 23, 2005 in Inside Labor | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451b76269e200d83424f6e553ef
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Laborers, Letter Carriers: Next To Leave?:
» Because organizing means talking to one another from The Bellman
It hurts me to do this, but this week's featured post is from the odious Mickey Kaus. Why? Because Kaus managed something almost unheard of in the world of labor blogging. He started a conversation that other blogs took up.Mickey Kaus wrote:Isn't abolis [Read More]
Tracked on Sep 25, 2005 9:35:21 PM
Comments
Yes, the new reality is there are two Labor Federations.
However, I think it's unfair to characterize CTW as a "competing" organization. This would suggest that the Federation is relevant and interested in growth.
CJ
Posted by: cj | Sep 23, 2005 9:44:31 AM
You mean the afl right.
We all know the CTW is interested in growth, so I can only assume your saying the AFL CIO isn't.
You didn't specify which federation.
Posted by: mahkno | Sep 23, 2005 1:06:10 PM
Right - AFL not interested in growth.
CJ
Posted by: cj | Sep 23, 2005 2:08:14 PM
RE: NALC
Don't the Laborers have a large component of USPS workers, too? Is it just coincidence that both NALC and the Laborers are talking disafiliation at the same time, or could there be merger talks going on as well?
Posted by: Rob | Sep 23, 2005 2:12:21 PM
The letter carriers are leaving, but they won't get to CTW for 2 1/5 weeks, and was delivered to the wrong place first.
Posted by: Cliff Clavin | Sep 23, 2005 2:22:08 PM
there is also another postal union, right? what is the story there?
Posted by: Ray | Sep 23, 2005 4:32:35 PM
There are a number of other postal unions. Most notably, the American Postal Workers Union (currently the largest but bleeding members to automation) and the Rural Letter Carriers (not in the AFL).
The LIUNA postal union is the Mail Handlers. They move the mail inside large postal facilities using fork lifts, etc. The APWU members' principle work is running mail sorting equipment, retail, maintenance, truck driving, and support services (some payroll, office clerical, computer programing, and other white collar stuff). The APWU also represents some private-sector mail contractor employees. The Mail Handlers did not join the merger of the other crafts into the APWU because it makes a lot of money by selling its health insurance plan to all sorts of non-postal federal employees. There will be no merger of the APWU and the Mail Handlers so long as LIUNA exists. In support of CTW rhetoric, I'll say that a proper federation would have blocked the Mail Handlers from merging into LIUNA. Let's just see LIUNA and their CTW buddies admit that now.
The National Ass'n of Letter Carriers (representing city letter carrier craft employees) and the Rural Letter Carriers are not going to merge anytime soon either.
The APWU's policy is to form one industrial union of employees in the mail industry. To those ends, the APWU has organized some unorganized groups in the Postal Service and some private-sector mail industry, and has made various attempts to convince the other postal unions to merge.
Posted by: Stan | Sep 23, 2005 5:27:28 PM
The NALC represents about 300k letter carriers, and the Laborers have a red-headed stepchild mail handlers' division of about 50,000 back room postal workers. The APWU is the other large postal union also of almost 300k. The APWU leaders are vocally opposed to CTW/Stand Up, maybe because of historic rivalries with the NALC, which is relatively progressive with a very large AFrican-American membership. I think it was the NALC that went on wildcat strikes against Nixon years ago.
Posted by: John Williams | Sep 23, 2005 5:28:24 PM
I think you have your history mixed up John.
The Postal Strike in the 70s was led by the National Postal Union, which was an industrial union that was concentrated in traditionally union cities like NYC, Cleveland and Detriot. The NPU, along with craft unions representing clerks, motor vehicle drivers and mechanics, special delivery drivers, and maintenance employees merged to form the APWU after the strike. Obviously, the three unions representing the city carrier, rural carrier, and mail handler crafts decided not to join the merger.
That said, it was the APWU that struck the Postal Service and gained employees the right to bargain over pay and benefits. (The Postal Reorganization Act of 1973 put postal employees under the NLRA, and out of the terrible federal employee FLRA which prohibits bargaining over pay and benefits.)
The APWU has a large African American membership and leadership. The bargaining unit is about 25% African American. All national officers are elected by direct mail ballot. President Bill Burrus is African American. The number 4 person in charge, Director of Industrial Relations Greg Bell, is also African American. Of the five Regional Coordinators, the membership has elected two African American women, and one African American man.
In comparison, NALC has an all white group of national hq officers-- except for the "Director of Life Insurance" and a trustee. Yeah, those are the important jobs. But don't take my word, look at their website.
The letter carriers are the darlings of the postal service. In fact, NALC has never even really fought postal privatization because the Postal Service wants to privatize everything but letter carriers, who the Postal Service sees as their good will ambassadors to the public. Some APWU members might call NALC a bunch of pale, stale, company men.
When your leadership demonstrates real leadership on race issues and not just tokenism, and there are direct elections, guess what, workers vote for the candidates that deliver, regardless of their ethnicity or color. Although I am sympathetic to the CTW in general, I think their talk of "diversity" smells of tokenism. Its inability to recruit the APWU to its side suggests that other trade unionists who are seriously committed to bringing people of all races together agree with me.
Posted by: Stan | Sep 23, 2005 5:54:38 PM
Stan is correct -- APWU is much more of an industrial union and has a much greater tradition of taking on the Postal Service than NALC. NALC is the craft union and very much the elite of the industry and the craft that is most protected by the company from outsourcing, privitization, etc since it is the public face of the company. The Mail Handlers, who are the group affiliated with LIUNA have a significant proportion of African Americans, close ties with CBTU and the civil rights movement, have historically had more of an affinity with the APWU than the NALC. So this one is a puzzle.
Posted by: Kate Bronfenbrenner | Sep 24, 2005 4:30:05 AM
In news that makes more sense, the elitist craft union California Nurses Association has decided to petition for a charter from the AFL-CIO. So much for CNA's rhetoric against the AFL.I wonder how the UAN and AFSCME will feel about that after having CNA raid them.
Posted by: Ben | Sep 24, 2005 2:29:08 PM
I stand corrected on the postal union history. My version was apparently tainted by associations several years ago with my NALC leftist cronies who were involved in the wildcat strikes, which I wrongly assumed was an NALC strike.
Also in the 1980s I did some research for the Richmond and Bay Area California NALC locals which were majority African American, and I assumed the rest of the union has a similar racial make-up. Also in the 1980s when I was involved, the NALC was more militant that the APWU but apparently that has changed.
Posted by: John Williams | Sep 25, 2005 12:10:16 AM
LIUNA is out of the AFL-CIO. The Wall Street Journal has the story:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112752838623750843,00.html
Posted by: Worker Power | Sep 25, 2005 9:02:18 AM
Boeing and IAM751 reached a tentative agreement. According to the recommendation letter Boeing backed off on all their demands and the union seems to have gotten a solid win.
http://www.iam751.org/recletter.htm
Carl
Posted by: Carl | Sep 25, 2005 9:10:45 PM
That happened to Terry O'Sullivans hand. My uunderstanding is that he is a little upset at Joe Maloney leaving the Building Trades. If he leaves does this mean he will resign as the head of ULICO?
Posted by: Charles | Sep 26, 2005 9:21:07 AM
As a Rural Carrier, what possible benefit would our craft receive from being part of the AFL-CIO? Just happened to find this site while looking for info on how to keep from getting "screwed" (for lack of a better word) by the Post Office more than I already was from our latest mail count (2008)
Posted by: Harriett S Wortham | Apr 2, 2008 12:34:59 AM
