SOME TIES STILL BIND Labor spending $40 million on mostly Dem candidates

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/business/15206924.htm



Posted on Sun, Aug. 06, 2006

SOME TIES STILL BIND
By Jane M. Von Bergen
Inquirer Staff Writer

The irony isn't lost on Karen Ackerman, staff political director at the AFL-CIO.

Last summer, the AFL-CIO, which was supposed to celebrate its 50th anniversary, instead split in two, divided, at least in part, on complaints that the nation's largest labor federation was spending too much of its money and muscle on politics and not enough on organizing new workers.

So what's happening a year later?

Politics is stitching the two sides together. They are working harder than ever on midterm congressional and gubernatorial races.

In Pennsylvania, it's almost as if the split never happened, so fierce is nearly all of organized labor's desire to unseat U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and replace him with a Democrat, Bob Casey Jr.

The AFL-CIO, though smaller, is spending more money on politics than ever for a midterm election season - $40 million this time, up from the low-$30-million range four years ago, Ackerman said.

National leaders of the two warring camps have buried the hatchet enough to form a political alliance to share mailing lists and contributions.

"Ironic is a very good word for it," Ackerman said. "Life is full of surprises."

A year ago, amid growing discontent with the AFL-CIO's leadership, four prominent unions boycotted the federation's national convention in Chicago.

Three of them - the Service Employees International Union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and the United Food and Commercial Workers - quit the federation on the spot. They were later joined by the fourth and two others.

At the convention, they announced a new organization, Change to Win, led by Anna Burger, international vice president of the service employees' union and a former state social worker from Levittown.

During the emotional and tumultuous convention, the AFL-CIO's remaining unions rallied behind John Sweeney, electing him to a third term, even as Sweeney's former acolyte, service employees' union president Andrew Stern, led the dissidents out of the AFL-CIO.

This week, the AFL-CIO's leaders are meeting again in Chicago, this time minus their Change to Win brethren. And next month, Change to Win's leaders will meet in Washington to further cement their alliance.

In the meantime, the election season continues.

Ackerman said he thought union leaders saw an opportunity to make a difference in Congress given mounting criticism of President Bush's domestic- and foreign-policy initiatives.

Whatever their differences, the sides agree that they must elect leaders who will pass labor-friendly laws on issues such as union organization, minimum wage and pensions.