News that the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win coalition have restarted re-merger talks is the talk of Democratic political circles.
What's been reported so far is this:
Labor officials like the idea of the national union being more in charge of politics and messaging; locals would do more grassroots organizing And one sticking point is, not surprisingly, who gets to lead the thing. Or -- who succeeds current AFL-CIO John Sweeney? The most promising option being considered is a rotating presidency.
What hasn't been reported:
There are much more fundamental issues being debated. And labor presidents are determined to keep the details of conversations under wraps for as long as possible.
They include: how and where organizing is done, what political priorities are should be, labor's relationship with the Democratic Party, labor's relationship to the Republican Party, union dues -- how labor relates to companies in a globalized economy -- and even more basic definitional issues.
"Everybody would likle to see a unified labor movement," a top labor consultant says. "The problem is that everyone has a different idea of what it should look like. [It's] not going to be easy to work through."
Seven unions representing six million workers bolted from the AFL-CIO in 2005 over priorities and personalities; they created the Change to Win coalition and promised to devote more resources to organizing. A collapsing economy set back those goals.
Negotiations are very preliminary. Someone familiar with the discussions described them as "pretty full" -- but with no resolution to any issue. Ex-Rep. David Bonior, who is leading the discussion, is putting together a working paper that would serve as the basis for future debate.
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