Union convention expected to draw 500

[Omaha Steve]

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Union convention expected to draw 500

The Associated Press

WENATCHEE - State and national labor leaders and union delegates were expected here for the four-day state AFL-CIO convention, which will address topics ranging from declining membership to illegal immigration.

David Groves, spokesman for the Washington State Labor Council, said 500 to 600 delegates, speakers and guests were expected at the Wenatchee Center.

The labor council is the state federation of the AFL-CIO. Council president Rick Bender was to deliver the opening speech Monday, followed by a keynote address by Linda Chavez Thompson, AFL-CIO executive vice president.

The state council represents about 500 unions, Groves said. Representatives from 200 to 250 of the council's larger unions were expected to attend. Among the politicians and candidates expected to attend were U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell,

D-Wash., who is seeking a second term this fall, and state House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle.

The convention occurs about a year after six major unions - including United Farm Workers, Service Employees International Union and the Teamsters Union - withdrew from the AFL-CIO to form their own alliance, Change to Win.

Groves said the dissenting unions felt the AFL-CIO wasn't doing enough to recruit more members. The pullout resulted in a decline in statewide AFL-CIO membership of 80,000 to 100,000. "Solidarity charters" were established to allow the dissidents to return, he said, and a majority of state-level union members had done so.

But recruitment remains a hot-button issue, Groves said.

U.S. Department of Labor statistics show that unionization has declined since 1983 from just more than 20 percent of the work force to about 12.5 percent last year.

Washington state union membership climbed by 13,000 last year to an estimated 523,000 members, but its share of the total work force declined slightly, from 19.3 percent to 19.1 percent.