National AFL-CIO takes control of Colorado office

Colorado office under fire as union sends in two outside executives -and will conduct audit-as part of plan towork out internal divisions

Joanne Kelley, Rocky Mountain News

Published February 1, 2007 at midnight

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The national AFL-CIO has taken control of the daily operations of its Colorado office, a move aimed at resolving internal conflicts at a critical time for the state's labor movement.

Colorado AFL-CIO President Steve Adams has retained his title and continues to lobby lawmakers on pending legislation. But two outside executives were brought in last week to oversee duties of the labor federation office.

The national office will conduct a financial audit as part of its standard practice, said Esmeralda Aguilar, AFL-CIO spokeswoman in Washington.

"We hope we will be able to address the internal divisions and work out a satisfactory solution," Aguilar said. "But we will stay as long as it takes."

Aguilar confirmed that the national office concluded that disagreements among Colorado labor officials "on a variety of issues and which direction to take" were "hampering the effectiveness of the Colorado AFL-CIO."

Rick Bender, president of the Washington State Labor Council, has been appointed trustee of the Colorado federation. Keith Maddox, who works for the national AFL-CIO, has assumed administrative oversight of the Colorado federation.

Colorado AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Paul Mendrick also has kept his title and has been asked to handle specific tasks to advance the group's mission, Aguilar said.

Adams, who testified at the state Capitol this week on pro-union legislation known as House Bill 1072, said he asked the national office to help him resolve conflicts at the state level.

He said the federation's national leaders decided they had to assume administrative control of his office to resolve the issues.

"We've had some huge victories in Colorado," Adams told the Rocky Mountain News on Wednesday. "I didn't want to see this internal union dispute really tear apart the labor movement."

Adams said Colorado labor leaders have been split over whether to focus more on organizing workers or lobbying lawmakers, among other issues. He also cited a dispute that held up the process for selecting Denver as the site for the Democratic National Convention.

The rift comes as Adams and others in the labor movement try to persuade legislators to pass pro-union legislation that Gov. Bill Ritter has suggested he will sign.

Evan Dreyer, Ritter's spokesman, said the governor's office is aware of the changes at the state federation, but he said he does not have enough details to comment about the matter.

"I don't really see that having any effect on their attempts to push the bill through the legislature," said Dan Pilcher of the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry. "I assume they will maintain a full-court press."

Mark Schwane, local executive director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, described the issue of pending legislation as "minuscule." The larger issue, he said, is "labor becoming more of a powerful force in the state" by building its membership, taking a more active role in the political process and by "improving working conditions."

He said "personality clashes" among local labor leaders led to the national federation getting involved to keep the state labor movement moving forward.

"Obviously something like this doesn't happen every day," Schwane said of the AFL-CIO situation. "It's a reflection of how they (the national AFL-CIO) see Colorado as a critical place for the labor movement."

Jo Romero, president of the Colorado Federation of Public Employees, said she has received little information about the situation at the Colorado AFL-CIO even though she sits on the executive board. "I don't think whatever's going on is serious," she said. "It's nothing that cannot be resolved."

Bender and Maddox have also taken over the administrative role of the executive board, the AFL-CIO said.

AFL-CIO at a glance

• The Washington-based group was created in 1955 by the merger of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. It's a voluntary federation of 54 national and international labor unions and about 9 million members working to bolster the organized labor movement.

• In 2006, there were 165,000 union members in Colorado, with just under half of those members of AFL-CIO- affiliated unions. The largest AFL-CIO-affiliated union in Colorado is the United Food and Commercial Workers, which had about 18,600 members in 2005.

• When the AFL and CIO merged in 1955, one of every three private-sector U.S. workers belonged to a labor union. Now, less than 8 percent of private-sector workers are unionized, and the share of Colorado workers with union membership fell from 8.3 percent in 2005 to 7.7 percent last year.

Sources: Afl-Cio, U.S. Bureau Of Labor Statistics

kelleyj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5068.

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