Chicago, IL
One year ago, when several affiliates chose to leave the Federation, the AFL-CIO Executive Council made a historic decision – to permit local unions of these former affiliates to continue to participate in the Federation at the state and the local level through Solidarity Charters.
Since the adoption of the Solidarity Charter program, more than 2,000 charters have been issued to local unions of the disaffiliated national unions, enabling these unions to affiliate with and participate in a unified labor movement at the state and local levels. These charters cover well over three-quarters of the membership that had been affiliated prior to the split in the labor movement last summer.
The widespread participation of these local unions at the state and local levels demonstrates the importance of state federations and central labor councils to the labor movement and the value that these local unions place on labor solidarity. Unions that have been granted Solidarity Charters are full members of the state or local labor movement and participate fully in the labor movement at that level. Members from these local unions can run for office, and indeed many leaders of our state and local bodies are members of Solidarity Charter unions.
These Solidarity Charter locals are full participants in the Federation’s political program. As Solidarity Charter locals, these unions pledge not to raid and are protected against raiding by AFL-CIO unions, unlike locals that do not have a Solidarity Charter.
The Solidarity Charter program has been very successful to this point in restoring labor movement unity at the state and local levels, and very few issues or problems have surfaced following implementation of the program. There are, however, several areas which should be reviewed by the Executive Council as it considers the long-term future of this approach.
When the Solidarity Charter program was first established, the Executive Council expected that local unions applying for Solidarity Charters would re-affiliate at the same level of membership as they had prior to the disaffiliations. Many locals have done so, but not all. Faced with having such locals re-affiliated at a lower level or not at all, state and local leaders mainly accepted such reductions in per capita tax payments. Particularly in view of the Federation’s ongoing campaign to increase the overall level of affiliation by local unions with state federations and central labor councils, the Executive Council should review the issue of under-affiliation by Solidarity Charter locals, including the extent of the practice, and determine if this practice is acceptable or if a requirement that payments be made at the prior level should or could be enforced. Further, the Executive Council should consider if less than full payment is sufficient for a local union to be granted no-raid protection.
Some local unions that were previously affiliated with both the state federation and the central labor council in their area chose only to re-affiliate with one of these bodies. These local unions enjoy access to the Federation’s political program and protection against raiding without participating as fully as they had been. As with the issue of the level of per capita tax payments, the Executive Council should examine the impact of this pattern of affiliation and see if additional requirements should be placed on these local unions.
In some situations, the disaffiliated unions have announced the establishment of their own state or local labor organization. It is still too early to tell what impact this has on AFL-CIO state federations and central labor councils – but it would be very troublesome if these became rival organizations. In a few states, the locals of the disaffiliated unions have refused to re-affiliate with the state federation and have established their own statewide organization, but at the same time these locals have requested Solidarity Charters to participate in central labor councils.
The Executive Council needs to examine these situations, determine what impact these relationships have on the entire labor movement, and decide if additional requirements should be established to address these matters.
Unions affiliated with the national AFL-CIO continue to support the development of strong state and local labor movements through the per capita tax these unions pay to the national AFL-CIO. These costs are substantial. To date, neither the disaffiliated national unions nor their locals with Solidarity Charters have paid a fair share Solidarity Fee to help defray these costs. As part of its review of the Solidarity Charter program, the Executive Council should consider whether there are additional or better mechanisms to ensure that the unions participating in our state and local central bodies contribute their fair share toward the development and support of these organizations.
To date, there have been only a handful of disputes involving raids by or involving local unions with Solidarity Charters, and these issues have been handled on an ad hoc basis. Although the AFL-CIO’s constitutional dispute resolution procedures are only available to national unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO and their local unions, the Executive Council should review whether a mechanism should be developed to address such disputes involving local unions with Solidarity Charters. In the interim, the President of the AFL-CIO should establish clear procedures for Solidarity Charter locals seeking to invoke their no-raiding protections.
Finally, the mechanism for participation in the AFL-CIO’s Labor 2006 political program by the disaffiliated national unions and their locals with Solidarity Charters, and the terms of cost-sharing for this participation, have been the subject of extensive negotiations over the past few months. The Executive Council should review the participation of Solidarity Charter locals and the disaffiliated national unions in the Labor 2006 program, and their financial contribution toward this participation, as part of its comprehensive review of the Solidarity Charter program.
During this review, if the President is satisfied, based upon the preliminary results of the review, that an extension of the Solidarity Charter program is warranted and appropriate, the Executive Council authorizes the President to extend the program for an appropriate period of time not to exceed six months (i.e., until June 30, 2007).
In addition, the Executive Council authorizes the President to provide Solidarity Charters to local unions of the United Farm Workers and the Laborers’ unions.