The
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (UBC) has announced it is leaving the AFL-CIO and joining up with the new coalition of rogue unions, the
Change To Win Coalition.
This makes the sixth union to join the coalition, adding nearly 600,000 members to bring the CtW's total to just over 6,000,000, or about 40% of the country's unionized workforce.
With the mass defections from the AFL-CIO expected by August, this has been
music to the ears of the Bosses and union busters, and could spell trouble for progressivism in general and the Democratic Party in particular.
However, the long-term effect may be good: the Change to Win Coalition is dedicated to one primary goal: organizing more workers, especially in "red" states.
The whole point of the CtW is to better coordinate labor's organizing strategies and to give greater incentive to unions to organize instead of just fighting rear guard actions to protect what they have.
Join the discussion on labor--and learn a lot--over at Unite To Win, the weblog hosted by the Service Employees International Union.
The ten largest and most activist and politically powerful unions in the country, arguable, are the SEIU, the Teamsters, AFSCME [State, County, Municipal Employees], UNITE-HERE [Textiles/Hotel workers]*, the Carpenters, the NEA [Educators], LIUNA [Laborers], the AFT [Teachers], UFCW [Food and Commercial Workers], the IBEW [Electrical Workers] and the CWA [Communications]. Of these, six have split to the CtW Coalition.
Supporting Labor must be the #1 Priority for progressives and Democrats, because it does two things: it brings about positive social and economic change for the lower and middle class without intrusive government, and it also grows and strengthens the movement while doing so; being a union member is more likely than almost any other factor in determining how a person votes.
*Although not one of the largest, UNITE-HERE has one of the most activist memberships and controls Amalgamated Bank.
{Cross posted from Chicago: Howtown on the Make