WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) — After repeated postponements, the Laborers Union formally told the AFL-CIO that they would leave the federation effective June 1. The announcement came in a May 22 letter from Laborers President Terry O’Sullivan to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney — a letter that only had to cross I Street in Washington, D.C., from the union’s headquarters on one side to the AFL-CIO headquarters on the other.

The Laborers are one of seven unions that formed the Change to Win federation last July, unveiling it during the national AFL-CIO convention in Chicago. The other six — the Service Employees, Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers, UNITE HERE, the Carpenters and the United Farm Workers — left the AFL-CIO then, or soon after the convention.

Like the others, the Laborers pulled out of the AFL-CIO because they dispute its larger emphasis on politics. While the AFL-CIO, in response to complaints from the CtW unions, has put more money into organizing, it also plans to spend $46 million on politics this year. By contrast, CtW’s smaller $16 million federation budget is supposed to be devoted largely to helping its member unions and their organizing drives.

But on the ground, locals of the seven CtW unions have worked closely with AFL-CIO-affiliated state federations and central labor councils, especially on politics. To help aid that joint work the two federations agreed on Solidarity Charters, with unions or their internationals paying per capita dues to stay in state feds and labor councils for the remainder of 2006.

It is not yet clear whether Laborers local unions will be allowed to sign Solidarity Charters.

The Laborers Union has 500,000 workers nationwide with another 200,000 retirees and associate members. It has five locals with approximately 2,350 members in Oregon, including Portland area Municipal Employees Local 483, Portland construction Locals 296 and 320, Local 121, with offices in Bend, Eugene and Hermiston, and Central Point-based Local 1400. There are 13 locals in Washington, including Vancouver Local 335 and Longview Local 791.

In another development, on May 20, SEIU Locals 503 and 49 voted to end their charter agreements with the Oregon AFL-CIO. The two unions accounted for more than 42,000 members at the state labor federation.

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