Change-to-Win Made Very Few Gains
Since Quitting AFL-CIO, Facts Reveal

Two years after their departure from the AFL-CIO, the seven unions that compose Change-to-Win are still struggling to build an infrastructure and strategy for bringing the “American Dream” to millions of unorganized workers.

At CtW’s 2nd Biennial Convention in Chicago on Sept. 25, the 900 delegates and allies accepted a resolution, “Uniting for the American Dream,” that committed the seven-union coalition to “devote maximum resources and strategic focus in the task of uniting, on an industry-wide basis, millions of workers in a revitalized and innovative labor movement.”

That kind of high-flown language and extravagant pledges were hardly different from the hype CtW used at its founding convention in 2005. What is apparent, however, is that the coalition has done very little to bring the American Dream closer to working people, except to offer them inspiring rhetoric.

During the day-and-a-half convention, CtW approved a 10-cent per capita assessment for politics for the 2007-2008 election cycle. The 10-cent surcharge, which may raise an estimated $14 million, will be used for political education on issues of major concern to labor. The delegates also heard speeches by two Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and John Edwards, and a message from Hillary Clinton.

One of the highlights of the convention was the release of still a third survey of how Americans feel about achieving the American Dream. Did CtW leaders need three surveys to realize that American workers are anxious about jobs, health care, retirement and the future of their children? A good question not included in the surveys: “What confidence do workers have that the AFL-CIO and CtW will do something about their plight?”

CtW’s Major Flaw: It Operates like a Corporation, not a Union

It’s important to note that the CtW operates like a corporation, with the seven leaders serving as a Leadership Council, who hold office permanently and whose powers over the organization and its members are unlimited. On Aug. 11, the Council voted to give Chair Anna Burger and Treasurer Edgar Romney another two years in office. (Burger is SEIU secretary-treasurer; Romney is executive vice president of Unite-Here). The Council serves as a managing board of directors, whose decisions are not to be challenged. Even the 10-cent assessment approved by the Leadership Council was not put before convention delegates for a vote.

In the CtW’s Constitution, the rights of union members are almost completely ignored. In fact, the seven leaders show a strong distaste for union democracy, both in theory and practice, feeling that, by their sheer collective brain power and the spending of millions of dollars, they can build a bigger and stronger labor movement, without massive involvement by the rank-and-file.

Isn’t it time to stop mooning about the American Dream and do something about the American Reality?

Our weekly column, “The World of Labor,” reports the struggles and victories of unions in countries around the globe. Check our web site: www.LaborEducator.org.