NEW YORK — UNITE HERE, the labor union representing textile and apparel workers, has joined the boycott of the AFL-CIO annual meeting and may sever ties with the organization.
“We’re pursuing the process vigorously,” said Bruce Raynor, general president. “I would expect a decision in the near future.”
UNITE HERE joined the Teamsters, the Service Employees International Union and United Food and Commercial Workers in boycotting the convention that is under way in Chicago. As a result, the leaders of those unions have withdrawn from running for the AFL-CIO’s executive council.
The rift has centered on how best to serve the various unions and the American worker. Unions such as UNITE HERE and the Teamsters said the AFL-CIO has been devoting too much of its resources to funding Democratic candidates in key areas rather than focusing on growing the labor movement.
“Following nine months of negotiations, it became clear to our delegates and leaders that our proposals for reform are not leading to a real commitment from the AFL-CIO to organize new members,” UNITE HERE said in a statement Monday. “Given our differences, the delegates voted to move on.”
The Teamsters and the SEIU already have announced their disaffiliation from the AFL-CIO, representing about 20 percent of its membership. UNITE HERE has some 450,000 active members and 400,000 retirees throughout North America.
Raynor noted that UNITE HERE, which also represents hotel and restaurant workers, will continue to support smaller central labor councils and state federations. However, delegates still attending the AFL-CIO conference will vote on whether to keep nonaffiliated unions from participating in local groups.
“We hope the delegates vote it down because they realize what a devastating blow that would be to the local and state coalitions that are such an important part of our movement,” Raynor said in the statement.
UNITE HERE was among the unions behind the Change to Win coalition, established last year and made up of the UFCW, Teamsters, Carpenters, SEIU, Laborers and United Farm Workers. That coalition accounts for more than one-third of the AFL-CIO’s membership, according to UNITE HERE, and is focused on organizing labor in an effort to improve wages and benefits.
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While UNITE HERE hasn’t formally broken from the AFL-CIO, Raynor said it is heading in its own direction.
“We want to focus more on growing the union,” he said. “We are going to spend more of our funding on growth.”
Much of the labor organization effort will focus on the apparel and retail industry, said Raynor, who singled out Wal-Mart as an example of a company that has been able to pay workers low wages without providing benefits or retirement options.
“More aggressive organizing means more campaigns to form unions in those industries,” Raynor said. “That’s certainly among the plans of our union.”