The SEIU (Service Employees International Union)'s executive board
approved a resolution allowing it to pull out of the AFL-CIO. [See also here:
Unite To Win
Others--including the Teamsters, Laborers, United Food and Commercial Workers, and the UNITE-HERE--will probably follow suit leading up to the AFL-CIO convention in Chicago in July.
Without federation protection, this could mean the beginning of large-scale union raiding and jurisdictional overlaps that could slow union growth and make political coordination more difficult.
If unions are dedicating their resources to fighting each other, the progressive movement (much less the Democratic Party)is in real trouble.
And if you're not sure about the depth and breadth of the labor movement's importance to all things progressives hold dear, just check out the membership lists of your favorite progressive coalition, foundation, or organization--chances are, labor will not only be represented, but contribute heavily. From the campaign to protect the Estate Tax, to immigrant rights, to esoteric progressive organizations you've never even heard of, Labor is all up in that.
If (when) SEIU and friends pull out, it's going to be ugly; but it is up to the rest of us to bring attention to labor issues and stand in solidarity and organize organize organize--to quote John L. Lewis:
Labor, like Israel, has many sorrows. Its women weep for their fallen and they lament for the future of the children of the race. It ill behooves one who has supped at labor's table and who has been sheltered in labor's house to curse with equal fervor and fine impartiality both labor and its adversaries when they become locked in deadly embrace.
{cross-posted at Chicago: Howtown on the Make