Denver Post: Unions await labor plan

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5796087

Unions await labor plan
Locals upset over national takeover of state AFL-CIO
By Tom McGhee
Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 05/02/2007 02:35:48 AM MDT

Randy Atkinson, president of the local firefighters union, said he will wait until a committee overseeing the state chapter of the AFL-CIO develops a plan for the organization's future before deciding whether his union should stay in the federation.

Other local unions, riled by a takeover that began in January, also are considering whether to stop paying a portion of their members' dues to the chapter until it returns to local control. Laborers Local 578 in Colorado Springs already has begun withholding the assessment.

But while a number of labor leaders are upset by the takeover, it is unlikely that many will abandon the AFL-CIO, said Mark Schwane, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. "I haven't seen any sign of mass mutiny at this point."

National AFL-CIO president John Sweeney "has emphasized that we need everybody to participate to build a stronger, more unified labor movement," national AFL-CIO spokeswoman Esmeralda Aguilar said in an e-mail.

The national AFL-CIO seized control after relations between state chapter president Steve Adams and secretary-treasurer Paul Mendrick deteriorated. Affiliated unions sided with one or the other in disputes, and Sweeney feared the bickering would jeopardize political gains labor has made recently in the state.

A pair of trustees sent by the national office are now in control. They are working with an advisory committee made up of 18 local labor leaders representing 94 percent of union affiliates in the state.

FULL story at link.