Prodded by transition team officials for President-Elect Barack Obama, 12 union presidents held a "unity" meeting January 7 in Washington. They emerged pledging "broad participation" in the effort to reunite the American labor movement.. In attendance at the session, called by former House Democratic Whip David Bonior, chair of American Rights at Work, were presidents of five of Change to Win's seven unions, six of the 56 AFL-CIO unions, and new National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel.
"The goal is to create a unified labor movement that can speak and act nationally on the critical issues facing working Americans," the presidents said in a joint statement said, adding that "while we represent the largest unions, we recognize unity requires broad participation." Other topics included mobilization for labor's legislative agenda - headed by the Employee Free Choice Act - and the structure of the revised labor movement.
Attending the meeting, besides Bonior and Van Roekel, were AFL-CIO member union presidents Larry Cohen (Communications Workers), Leo Gerard (Steel Workers), Ron Gettelfinger (Auto Workers), Gerald McEntee (AFSCME), Ed Hill (IBEW) and Randi Weingarten (Teachers). Change to Win presidents attending were Joe Hansen (United Food and Commercial Workers), James Hoffa (Teamsters), Terry O'Sullivan (Laborers), Bruce Raynor (UNITE HERE) and Andy Stern (Service Employees International Union). AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney and Change to Win Chair Anna Burger also joined the session.
Steven Greenhouse from the NY Times gave more inside scoop on the meeting in his article last week, "Labor Calls for Unity After Years of Division:"
"There was a real sense of commitment to unifying our movement again," Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said Wednesday. "It was clear that many of us felt that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and we really want to do things to help American workers get their rightful place in society."
Originally published by the Metropolitan Washington Council, an AFL-CIO "Union City" Central Labor Council whose 200 affiliated union locals represent 150,000 area union members.
