For a lot of people, the split in the UNITE/HERE union has been under the radar. In 2004, the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees merged with the Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees. Things have not worked out and now the internal dissension is threatening the entire labor movement. Today, five international union Presidents, from both Change to Win and AFL-CIO allied unions, have joined 150,000 workers and shown support for dissolution of the merger that created UNITE HERE.
"When a merger doesn't work it is in the best interests of the membership to break it up. The continuing public escalation of your internal battle, when there are reasonable alternatives, threatens members' interests and reforms that would benefit the entire labor movement."
-- United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard and United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger, letter dated 3/13/09
What's Next for UNITE/HERE
More, after the fold.
On March 7, 2009, 15 UNITE HERE Joint Boards voted to disaffiliate from the International Union:
NEW YORK, March 7 PRNewswire -- Thousands of union members, representing 150,000 workers, gathered today to vote on disaffiliation from the UNITE HERE International Union. Delegates and elected leaders represent workers in the apparel, textile, laundry, food service and hospitality industries, including nearly 40,000 members of the former HERE.
"This vote was an important step that takes our union in the right direction," said Edgar Romney, Manager of the New York Metropolitan Area Joint Board. "Our joint board's elected leaders voted to end our affiliation with UNITE HERE. In so doing, we can move ahead toward forming a new union - one that better serves its members and one that empowers those that do not yet have a union."
"Our merger with the former HERE was a total failure. Their way of operating was authoritarian, secretive, and undemocratic. John Wilhelm and his faction worked to disenfranchise the workers on the UNITE side of the union and gain control of the resources those workers helped to build," said Cristina Vazquez, Manager of the Western States Regional Joint Board.
PR Newswire
The Nation wrote an article recently providing more background on the merger, its failure, and the split between UNITE and HERE:
Prospects looked bright in 2004 for the marriage of UNITE, a union of garment and textile workers, and HERE, the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union. Globalization was wiping out much of UNITE's terrain, but the union had money in the bank (and even an actual bank, Amalgamated), with assets of $300 million to $500 million. On the other hand, HERE's industries--hotels, gambling, food--were growing fast, but despite having more members, the union had less than a tenth of UNITE's wealth.
Both unions and their well-educated leaders had reputations as tenacious organizers--Bruce Raynor of UNITE in the South and John Wilhelm of HERE in New Haven and Las Vegas. Starting with fewer than 400,000 members, UNITE HERE hoped to demonstrate how unions could organize on a big scale. But now the two leaders and the union are fiercely divided, with Raynor's UNITE faction denouncing the merger as failed and even suing to get out of it. Raynor's group seems likely to try a different merger, with the nearly 2 million-member SEIU.
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The merger has turned out to be a "huge disappointment," Raynor says. Both leaders set greater gains in organizing as the test of the merger's success. But after a strong first year, the merged union has organized fewer members each year than the two unions organized in four of the five pre-merger years, despite spending more.
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Relations between the two factions deteriorated last year. Efforts to resolve the conflict failed, and new grievances developed. Starting in December each side tried to take control of local unions from the other.
The Nation, Unions, Disunited
Divorce can be difficult when a bank is involved. As I understand it, that bank was created nearly a century ago by the International Ladies Garment Workers members, which later became UNITE by a name change.
"The Amalgamated Bank was founded by immigrant union members who needed banking services when no one else would have them as customers," explained Bruce Raynor, Chairman of the Amalgamated Bank and General President of UNITE HERE. "The bank is first and foremost a fiscally sound financial institution, but the bank is also committed to the ideals of its founders and its history of service. For a bank like ours, there is no higher calling than supporting workers on strike."
Established in 1923, Amalgamated Bank has distinguished itself as the bank for unions, members and working people. The institution, which is a FDIC insured commercial bank with $4.5 billion in assets, provides a full-range of banking services to middle-market businesses, health care facilities, real estate developers and small businesses as well as financial and trust services to labor organizations, the public sector and corporations. The retail banking division has 10 branches in New York City as well as one branch in each of the following locations: New Jersey, Washington, D.C. and southern California.
UNITE/HERE press release, September 4, 2007
There are many views on the split and strong feelings on both sides. More from UNION Review
There appear to be organizing differences and even philosophical differences between the two unions. For example, HERE's leader, John Wilhelm, does not see the Employee Free Choice Act to be key to labor's future:
Wilhelm also writes that he doesn't think the union should launch a "massive campaign" on the Employee Free Choice Act, a measure that would help organizing, but which he warns wouldn't be a "magic wand."
Ben Smith's blog, October 8, 2008
I don't think people see it as a "magic wand," but I do think Change to Win and the AFL-CIO should launch a massive campaign on it. It will make a big difference. Raynor and UNITE see EFCA as key to our futures. Wilhelm, while supporting it, sees it as a less important priority. Philosophical differences.
It looks to me and many other observers that the marriage of these two unions has failed. Along with the Presidents of the Steelworkers and UAW, Jamas Hoffa of the Teamsters and United Food and Commercial Workers President Joe Hansen have called for a divorce.
GROWING CHORUS OF LABOR LEADERS AND INDEPENDENT OBSERVERS
CALL FOR END TO UNITE HERE MERGER
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"In speaking with colleagues in the United States it is evident that this merger, despite best of intentions, has clearly failed."
-- President of National Union of Public and General Employees (Canada) James Clancy, letter dated 3/16/09
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United Food and Commercial Workers President Joe Hansen and well known labor mediator Larry Fox have both led mediation sessions between the two sides of the dispute, and now agree that a split is the only workable solution.
President Hansen proposed a split in the most recent mediation session he held, and Fox indicated that a divorce was the only possible resolution when he ended his mediation back in November.
Teamster's President James Hoffa also called for an end to the merger in a recent letter to UNITE HERE leadership.
What's Next for UNITE/HERE
The union leaders joined over 2,500 elected leaders representing 150,000 union members who voted to disaffiliate from UNITE HERE. The delegates voting to disaffiliate represent over 40% of the union's membership, including nearly 40,000 former HERE members
Despite the will of the workers and the growing chorus of labor leaders, former HERE President John Wilhelm and his faction have refused to recognize that the merger is over, and instead have tried to punish these affiliates and to take the treasuries and buildings their members built over the last hundred years. They have challenged the actions in court, as well as threatening to take control of local unions away from their elected leaders and to seize their assets.
"Even as many of our members are leaving our union, I know that it could take years to sort out how to separate and restore our individual unions if we leave it to the courts or an acrimonious internal process," says Bruce Raynor, General President of UNITE HERE.
What's Next for UNITE/HERE
Reverend Nelson N. Johnson of the UNITE HERE Public Review Board expresses the growing view regarding the failed marriage of two unions:
"I am saddened that the merger has clearly failed. I made the best case I could, along with others of you, at our December Public Review Board meeting, encouraging the two presidents to try harder to find a path to reconcile the differences between them and the two unions. Developments since December have now made it clear that no such path has been found, nor is it likely that such a path will be found"
-- Reverend Nelson N. Johnson of the UNITE HERE Public Review Board, letter dated 2/8/09
Sometimes things don't work out. When they don't, divorce is appropriate. It's time to separate UNITE and HERE. Irreconcilable differences means it's time to split. UNITE and HERE will be better off separate. So will the labor movement.